Trump Picks Walker for Smithsonian

Scott Walker. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

President Donald Trump has appointed former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, in an announcement made yesterday.

The center, as its website explains, is “a gathering place for some of the best and brightest scholars and experts from around the world. Their work is the centerpiece of our activity and informs the nation’s public policy debates with nonpartisan and relevant research and information.”

Walker never completed his bachelors degree at Marquette University and as governor often seemed opposed to scholarship. He favored drastic cuts in UW System funding and tried to delete “the search for truth” from the guiding principles of the state’s university system.

By contrast, the search for truth is a central concern of scholars at the Wilson Center.

Walker also slashed the scientific staff of the state Department of Natural Resources and the DNR deleted all mention of climate change from its website.

By contrast, science is a major concern of the Wilson Center, which runs the Science and Technology Innovation Program. The center has also concerned itself with global climate change, co-writing a report on “climate and fragility risks” commissioned by the G7 nations and offering a program on “climate change and conflict”, among other efforts.

Among those who criticized Gov. Walker’s handling of education was presidential candidate Donald Trump who declared that “Wisconsin’s doing terribly… it’s in turmoil, the roads are a disaster….the schools are a disaster, and they’re fighting like crazy because there’s no money for the schools…”

Walker has been appointed to serve the remainder of a six-year term that will not expire until October 23, 2024. He will help oversee “the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform actionable ideas for the policy community,” as the center describes itself.

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