An Open Letter to the ASU+GSV Summit Committee: Who Does Your North Star Truly Guide?
Dear ASU+GSV Summit Leadership Team,
Your summit claims to be guided by a “North Star of unity,” a vision of bringing together the brightest minds in education, technology, and policy to shape the future of learning. A noble mission — one that, in theory, champions innovation, equity, and access to education for all. And yet, you have chosen to hand a microphone to Linda McMahon, the person currently overseeing the systematic dismantling of the Department of Education with no plan beyond mass layoffs, block grants, and a vague promise to let states figure it out. If this is what unity looks like, you might want to recalibrate your compass.
Let’s not pretend this is some thought-provoking debate. You are platforming someone who is not just chipping away at public education — she is taking a sledgehammer to it. On March 20, 2025, President Trump is expected to sign an executive order (dictatorial decree?) to begin dismantling the Department of Education, with McMahon as the lead architect of the destruction. Over 1,300 staff members have already been fired, gutting the agency’s ability to enforce civil rights protections, oversee federal funding, and hold states accountable for providing basic educational equity. The plan? Hand it all over to the states through block grants — a decades-old political trick designed to let governors funnel money where they want, free from pesky federal oversight. We have seen this movie before. It ends with underfunded schools, deepening inequality, and a booming private education industry profiting off the scraps of a system they helped wreck.
This is not about efficiency, and it is certainly not about improving education. The push to eliminate the Department of Education has been a Republican fantasy since the Reagan era, but now it has fresh fuel from the so-called “parents’ rights” movement — a political rebranding of grievances tied to pandemic school shutdowns, opposition to LGBTQ+ inclusion, and hostility toward federal education standards. But underneath the culture war slogans and outrage marketing, the real goal is clear: privatization. This is about funneling public education dollars into private hands, particularly religious schools aligned with Christian ideology. It is about defunding public education under the guise of “school choice,” deepening socio-economic and racial disparity, and ensuring taxpayer money props up institutions with little to no accountability while leaving public schools starved for resources. If you think this is about making education more effective, you are either being willfully ignorant or knowingly complicit.
Let’s not pretend legality is a roadblock here. The Trump administration has already shown a willingness to ignore judicial rulings and operate with impunity, with no meaningful pushback from Congress. This is not about navigating the legal constraints of dismantling a federal agency — it is about seizing power and enforcing an ideological agenda without consequence. The courts will issue rulings (that are not enforced), Congress will posture (maybe?), and in the meantime, McMahon is gutting public education in real time. The Department of Education is being dismantled before anyone can stop it, and by the time the legal battles are settled, the damage will be irreversible. This is not governance. It is a power grab, and one that your summit is choosing to legitimize by giving McMahon a stage.
So what exactly are we doing here? If your goal is to foster meaningful debate, why hand the stage to someone whose policies are actively eliminating the systems designed to provide educational access and equity? If McMahon has an actual plan beyond “let the states handle it,” let her put it in writing with clear, measurable outcomes. Otherwise, this is not a conversation — it is a victory lap for those turning out the lights on public education while pretending to champion opportunity.
ASU+GSV has spent years branding itself as the premier space for innovation in education. But what is the point of innovation when the fundamental infrastructure for equitable education is being torched? What good is shaping the future of learning when you are giving a platform to someone dismantling the present? Platforming McMahon is not neutrality — it is an endorsement, whether you want to admit it or not.
If your North Star truly guides you toward equity and access, then ask yourself what message this sends. Because right now, it looks less like a beacon for progress and more like a white flag of surrender.
Sincerely,
James O’Hagan
