President-elect Donald Trump wants the Department of Education gone. During his presidential campaign, Trump made waves by repeatedly pledging to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, calling it a symbol of federal overreach and an unnecessary drain on taxpayer money. The promise was bold: “We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” he declared at a rally in Wisconsin back in 2016. His critics and supporters alike raised eyebrows, but what would actually happen if such a move were to be made?

The Department of Education, created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, has long played a pivotal role in shaping America’s education system. If Trump’s plan were to move forward, it could mean sweeping changes to how K-12 schools are funded and how federal education policies are implemented.

The Core Functions of the Department

The Department of Education performs several essential roles in the American education system. For one, it funnels billions of federal dollars to states and schools. Its two major funding programs—Title I and IDEA—help support schools serving low-income students and children with disabilities. These programs provide nearly $28 billion annually to K-12 schools, although they represent only a small fraction of overall school funding. The bulk of K-12 school budgets comes from state and local taxes. The Department of Education also manages federal student loans and financial aid programs, including Pell grants, which distribute about $30 billion annually to help low-income college students.

Without these programs, how would schools and students fare? The answer isn’t clear-cut, but one thing is certain: federal funding has become a significant tool in ensuring access to education, especially for marginalized groups.

The Bureaucratic Web: Oversight and Regulations

In addition to distributing funding, the Department of Education plays an oversight role, ensuring that schools meet federal standards and investigating issues of discrimination. Through its Office of Civil Rights, the department enforces rules aimed at preventing discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and disability in schools. Over the years, the department has also been a key player in regulating hot-button issues—such as protections for transgender students and regulations on student loan forgiveness programs.

But what happens if this regulatory body no longer exists? One potential scenario could involve the transfer of these responsibilities to other federal agencies or a decentralization of decision-making power to state and local governments.

Federal Funds: The Strings Attached

Federal money doesn’t come without conditions. For instance, schools that receive funding through programs like Title I must adhere to certain rules and regulations. These guidelines can sometimes create what many consider “red tape.” For years, critics of the Department have argued that the bureaucracy tied to federal funding slows down school improvement efforts and imposes undue burdens on local administrators.

According to experts, the funding programs might survive, albeit in a different structure

Some policy experts suggest that even if the Department of Education were dissolved, the funding itself could continue—possibly in the form of block grants that offer more flexibility to local districts. But others warn that dismantling the department could result in a loss of essential oversight and services, especially for students with special needs.

What Happens to Federal Education Programs?

Interestingly, many of the funding programs the Department of Education oversees—particularly Title I and IDEA—were in place before the agency itself existed. This raises the question: Would these programs disappear if the department were abolished?

According to experts, the funding programs might survive, albeit in a different structure. Congress, which ultimately controls federal spending, has historically resisted efforts to cut education funding, even during budget negotiations when past presidents proposed cuts. Many believe that, even if the Department were to close its doors, the political and public support for these funding streams would likely push them into different agencies or programs.

Can Congress Actually Abolish the Department of Education?

While Trump’s rhetoric may have made abolition sound simple, shutting down a federal agency is no small feat. It would require an act of Congress—a challenge that previous efforts have failed to overcome. Even President Ronald Reagan, shortly after the department’s creation in 1980, proposed its elimination but eventually backed down due to lack of congressional support. The Trump administration also tried to merge the Education and Labor Departments, but that effort stalled in Congress.

Even if the GOP gains unified control of Washington in the coming years, it remains uncertain whether there will be enough support to completely dismantle the Department of Education.

The Road Ahead

So, what would an America without the Department of Education look like? In reality, it’s likely that some form of federal oversight and funding would continue, but the shape of it could change significantly. If Congress and the president were to act, the most likely outcome would be a shift in how federal funds are distributed—potentially with fewer strings attached—and a reorganization of some of the department’s key functions.

While Trump’s rhetoric may have made abolition sound simple, shutting down a federal agency is no small feat. It would require an act of Congress

Ultimately, the debate about whether to abolish the Department of Education touches on much larger issues: how to balance federal power with state autonomy, how to fund public schools fairly, and how to ensure that all students, regardless of background, have access to a high-quality education.

As the conversation continues, one thing is clear: any significant change to the Department of Education would have profound implications for the future of education in America, particularly for its most vulnerable students. Whether that future is shaped by a more decentralised approach or by a reformed federal agency remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure—the stakes are high.

Science after World War II

Scientific research changed forever in the aftermath of the World War II. Nuclear weapons entered the fray, and scientists worked – not alone anymore – but now in groups rivalling organizations. Governments walked in for the first time, institutionalizing science as a state-project. In the US, Vannevar Bush’s Science: the Endless Frontier advocated for a dichotomy within science, between applied and basic research. India soon advocated for something Though flawed, it’s a blueprint used across the world, including in India. But it needs to change.

Following independence, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, resorted to building centralized institutions across the country, with the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) being famous amongst those pursuing a technical stream. Along with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), they’ve attracted the country’s most meritorious and bright students. Nehru viewed and appreciated scientific thinking as a “way of life” and an aspect that’ll break the shackles of superstitious belief in many Indians. He popularized the phrase “scientific temper”, which was later amended into the Indian constitution by his daughter and late prime minister, Indira Gandhi. However, this was during the Emergency Period, when democracy was curtailed, dissidents were imprisoned, and mass sterilization campaigns castrated many men against their will.

Keeping political hypocrisy aside, the administrations since then hasn’t picked up much steam either on being serious about its fundamental scientific research. This is not to say there hasn’t been marvels in technological innovation. Vikram Sarabhai, the technocrat scientist and aristocrat, who helped seed incentives for the country to invest in a space program, envisioned science and technology to enable Indians use of state-of-the-art technology, without going through the rudimentary “stages of growth” that was thought to plague many developing nations. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) builds satellites and rockets, and has been the harbinger rather in public eye for the country’s assertive rise as a space power. Fundamental science research has taken a backseat, with funding woes and political apathy felt even today.

Funding for ISRO virtually trumps anything else that churns in public scientific institutions. Though this is a common attributed share among space faring nations, India’s amongst the lower tier of nations that spends on research and development (R&D) – constituting just 0.64% of the Indian economy, and a continuing decline in funds allocated in yesteryears. India’s next door neighbor China spends some 2.4%, and both the US and UK spend either 3% or more per year.

It’s not like India doesn’t have illustrious or even seminal scientific contributions in the modern age. Scientific research did flourish in British India, amongst a few practitioners, benefitting from uninterrupted time in their laboratories with relatively cheap equipment– as with experimentalists such as Jagdish Chandra Bose and C.V. Raman; to name a few, or theorists including Meghnad Saha and S.N. Bose. Today though, these names remain largely confined to history in public discourse.

Science in pre-independent India

The imperial capital of science in India, Calcutta, was home to top-tier frontier research in quantum mechanics in the early 20^th century. In the 1920s, Satyendra Nath Bose, a theorist, solved a particular problem related to the blackbody radiation law that evaded even Einstein. Bose, whom we profiled in our Know the Scientist page, fostered a collaboration with Einstein, culminating in numerous theoretical advances in quantum statistics, especially predicting the fifth state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate. Paul Dirac, the English physicist, coined the name bosons, after the class of quantum particles with integer spins, that Bose and Einstein’s statistics describe properties. It was one of these bosons (a word-play on “Bose-ons”) that particle physicists confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland in 2012.

Science during British India was top-notch, and continued its trend in the immediate aftermath of Indian independence. In 1948, Calcutta was abuzz again, but now with a cyclotron that they were building. A cyclotron’s a device that accelerates particles to near light-speed in the presence of electromagnetic fields, thereby producing radiation. It aided in frontier research in nuclear physics, for example, measuring cross-sections of the uranium nucleus (U-235). Housed at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, accelerator physicists received funding to build a bigger cyclotron at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, touching energies in the MeV range. Today, it’s part of the International Radioactive Ion Beam consortium, helping spread India’s fundamental research reach across the world.

So far, there’s been little coverage about the research in much of central universities and research institutions. It’s surprising how Bose’s contribution to quantum theory found no mention in India’s media discourse. Indian science hasn’t had limelight, not because there’s little research output – though there’s a case to make, as many has made before – but there’s a need for science communicators and journalists to help bridge that gap that exists between scientists and the public. The government has shown little consideration to extend science communication beyond publishing white papers about its importance.

Scientist or engineer?

Media representation of science is confused. The space program, that receives much public adulation and emblematic of national pride, is wrongly perceived as a scientific institution. Space engineers have become scientists in the public eye, despite rocket and satellite development is a matter of engineering, and not science. The former Indian president and “ISRO scientist” Abdul Kalam wasn’t a scientist per se, but an aerospace engineer. Barely mentioned in our public discourse are scientists that’ve done commendable research across the sciences.

Science done in central or local institutions for that matter hasn’t shared the limelight, anywhere as ISRO has since Independence. It’s the government’s pet, and has shaped narratives of technological innovation within and outside India. But this is largely technology history, without much scientific imperative.

Taking initiative

On the flip side, there’s much smaller science projects, that does combine the best of both worlds, combining technology development and science; thus blurring the dichotomy between applied and basic science research.

Govind Swarup, an Indian astronomer, worshiped by his peers as a “father of Indian radio astronomy” had voiced for a radio observatory, the first of its kind in Asia, to be constructed in the 1950s. The Indian government wasn’t interested, unless the astronomers received funds from sponsor countries. Australia had offered to pay and construct, after a long tussle, following which either party withdrew from discussions.

It was not until the 1980s, did India commence building an indigenous radio telescope. In 1995, the country’s first radio telescope, the Great Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) was operational after a decade of construction. The team at GMRT contributed to the first detections of the cosmic gravitational wave background with its European radio astronomy counterparts in the Pulsar Timing Array project.

In 2016, the Indian astronomy community were greenlit to construct a gravitational wave detector in Pune, following confirmation of gravitational waves in February that year. Though this project too bas been plagued by successive delay construction would supposedly take off soon (perhaps late this year). In light of these late developments, politicians and scientists have begun beating the drums about the potential economic impact from involving Indian industry in the construction of the detector – utilizing state-of-the-art quantum technologies – in partnership with international teams. For the scientific community, precious data from the detector is incentive for attracting and inspiring the country’s emerging scientific talent.

Meanwhile, there’ve been hurdles that’ve prevented few other projects from taking off. The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), in Tamil Nadu, is one glaring example. Poor policy making amid environmental concerns that wasn’t addressed in time has forestalled construction for more than a decade. In this case rather, neither scientist nor policy maker bothered to engage with the public and hear out their concerns. And it takes much more development in science policies and public engagement to resolve these systemic issues.

The dawn of the artificial intelligence (AI) era is often compared to transformative technological advancements such as the steam engine, electricity, and the personal computer. These innovations reshaped industries and daily life, and AI is poised to make an equally revolutionary impact, particularly on global productivity. While the effects of AI are still unfolding, experts believe that its ability to significantly boost productivity could happen in record time—just seven years, compared to decades for earlier technological revolutions.

This optimism comes at a critical juncture in the global economy. Post-pandemic, many countries are grappling with stagnating growth, rising inflation, and mounting debt, alongside the fundamental issue of declining productivity. In fact, several international agencies have noted that the productivity decline following the global economic downturn is unprecedented in recent history. Yet, AI is emerging as a way of hope, offering the potential not only to reverse this trend but to propel productivity to unprecedented heights.

The Economic Impact of AI: A Long-Awaited Leap

The global economy has struggled with low productivity growth for over a decade. For example, U.S. labour productivity growth averaged just 1.68% from 1998 to 2007, a period during which significant technological innovations like the internet and personal computers began to take root. But since 2010, productivity growth has fallen further, dipping to 0.38% between 2010 and 2019.

Some forecasts suggest that generative AI alone could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion to the global economy

In this environment, AI is seen as the key to unlocking a new wave of economic efficiency. According to recent reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), AI technologies are expected to drive a substantial increase in global productivity. Some forecasts suggest that generative AI alone could add between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion to the global economy.

To understand the potential of AI in the context of productivity growth, it’s useful to compare it to previous technological breakthroughs. The steam engine, for example, took about 60 years to fully transform productivity in manufacturing. Personal computers accelerated productivity growth over 15 years. By contrast, AI is expected to have a profound impact on productivity within just seven years.

Generative AI and Its Promising Future

Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that creates new content—whether it’s text, images, or even software code—based on patterns learned from large datasets. The speed with which generative AI is advancing is extraordinary. ChatGPT, released in November 2022, was quickly followed by a more advanced version, GPT-4, and other breakthroughs have appeared throughout 2023. This technology is expanding rapidly, with the capability to process tens of thousands of words in a minute, creating a powerful tool for automating complex tasks.

The applications of generative AI are vast and varied. In the business world, AI systems are already transforming industries like customer operations, marketing, software engineering, and research and development. The banking sector, for example, is projected to see an annual revenue increase of $200 billion to $340 billion through the adoption of AI. The retail and consumer goods sectors could see similar gains, potentially adding up to $600 billion annually.

AI’s potential to automate routine tasks could also free up significant amounts of time for human workers. Studies indicate that generative AI could automate between 60% and 70% of the tasks currently performed by employees, dramatically increasing efficiency. For knowledge-based workers, particularly in high-wage and high-skill sectors, AI is poised to amplify productivity by reducing time spent on routine tasks, such as data analysis, customer service, and administrative work.

Transforming Labour Markets: A Double-Edged Sword

However, the rapid rise of AI is not without its challenges, particularly when it comes to labor markets. Many fear that the widespread adoption of AI could lead to massive job displacement, especially in developed countries where white-collar jobs are more susceptible to automation. According to the IMF, while 30% of U.S. jobs may be at risk of automation by AI, only 13% of jobs in India are likely to be affected, reflecting the differing technological capabilities and labor market structures across the globe.

At the same time, AI’s integration into the economy is expected to create new job opportunities, especially in fields that require advanced technical skills, such as AI development, data science, and cybersecurity. This pattern mirrors historical trends: when previous technological revolutions disrupted the labor market, they also created entirely new industries and job categories. A recent study by MIT found that 60% of the jobs in America today did not exist in 1940, highlighting the constant evolution of the labor market in response to technological innovation.

AI’s Role in Healthcare: Beyond Productivity

AI’s potential extends far beyond traditional sectors like manufacturing or finance. The healthcare industry stands to benefit greatly from AI’s ability to analyze vast amounts of medical data quickly and accurately. For example, AI systems can assist doctors by analyzing scan reports, identifying patterns, and recommending treatment protocols. AI can also reduce the burden of administrative tasks, such as summarizing doctors’ notes and processing insurance claims, thereby improving productivity in healthcare settings while also reducing costs.

Generative AI is now widely recognized as a general-purpose technology (GPT), similar to electricity or the personal computer

Such advancements could lead to significant improvements in healthcare delivery, making it more efficient and cost-effective. This would not only improve outcomes for patients but also contribute to economic growth by lowering healthcare costs for both consumers and governments.

The Path Forward

Generative AI is now widely recognized as a general-purpose technology (GPT), similar to electricity or the personal computer. These technologies have historically contributed to broad-based productivity growth across multiple sectors. The key to AI’s success as a GPT lies in its ability to integrate seamlessly with existing technologies and applications across various industries, driving continuous innovation and productivity gains.

The widespread adoption of AI in industries like logistics, manufacturing, education, and even creative arts has the potential to revolutionize how businesses operate and how workers contribute. As businesses continue to integrate AI into their processes, the resulting efficiencies will likely lead to increased competition, lower prices, and higher wages for workers in industries that embrace these changes.

AI’s transformative potential for global productivity cannot be overstated. Just as the steam engine and personal computers reshaped industries and economies, AI is positioned to trigger an unprecedented leap in productivity across nearly every sector. While challenges related to job displacement and economic inequality remain, the promise of a future in which AI drives substantial economic growth is undeniably exciting.

As AI continues to evolve, it is crucial for businesses, policymakers, and workers to embrace this change, adapting to new technologies and fostering an environment that allows AI to reach its full potential. The future of productivity is unfolding before us, and AI will be at the centre of this revolution.