This past week, I had the opportunity to gather with colleagues and scholars from around the world at the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting in Denver. It was a time to reconnect, to reflect, and to engage deeply with new ideas shaping the future of education research and policy.
One of the moments that resonated with me most was Janelle Scott’s 2025 AERA Presidential Address. Among many thought-provoking insights, she introduced the concept of kakistocracy — a word that feels especially urgent in today’s educational and political landscape.
Kakistocracy — from the Greek kakistos, meaning “worst,” and kratos, meaning “rule” — refers to government by the least qualified, or the most unscrupulous, or the most self-serving. It’s a system where those likely least suited to lead are nonetheless at the helm, steering institutions not toward justice, equity, or excellence, but toward decay, division, or personal gain.
As Scott argued, and as many of us are seeing with increasing alarm, kakistocracy is no longer an abstract idea. It has materialized in education leadership, policy, and governance — with devastating consequences.
Kakistocracy and Education Today
In the current moment, we are witnessing appointments of leaders in education — from US Secretary of Education to university presidencies — who are actively hostile to the very missions they are supposed to uphold. Instead of expertise, integrity, and a commitment to equity, we see:
- Leaders selected for political loyalty rather than educational excellence.
- Superintendents and commissioners beholden to ideological agendas instead of evidence-based practices.
- University presidents more concerned with appeasing political forces than defending academic freedom, racial equity, or truth itself.
It is a kakistocracy when educational institutions that should nurture critical thinking and social mobility instead become tools for retrenchment, censorship, and systemic inequity.
And we should not be surprised. As history teaches us, when democratic institutions are under siege, kakistocracy is not an accident — it is often the goal.
Three Prime Examples: Betsy DeVos, Linda McMahon, and Ben Sasse
Perhaps no era more clearly illustrated the rise of educational kakistocracy than the Trump administrations.
First, there was the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education during Trump’s first term.
DeVos, a billionaire heiress with no professional experience in public education, was tasked with leading the U.S. Department of Education.
Her primary qualifications?
- Massive political donations to Republican causes.
- A staunch commitment to privatizing public education through vouchers and charter expansion.
- A willingness to dismantle the very protections the Department was created to enforce.
During her Senate confirmation hearings, DeVos famously revealed staggering ignorance or maybe indifference about basic educational policy, including confusion over federal laws protecting students with disabilities.
Despite fierce public opposition, the Senate vote resulted in an unprecedented 50-50 tie. For the first time in U.S. Senate history, the Vice President — Mike Pence — had to intervene and cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm her. (Source: New York Times, February 7, 2017)
This was not just a political maneuver.
The vote was a crystal-clear signal: competence was negotiable; loyalty was not.
Fast forward to Trump’s second term, and we now confront the latest symbol of kakistocracy:
Linda McMahon, billionaire donor and former WWE wrestling executive, was confirmed as Secretary of Education on March 3, 2025, in a narrow 51–45 Senate vote.
McMahon, who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, has no professional background in public education.
Yet loyalty, wealth, and political service appear to again be deemed more important than expertise, vision, or experience with the complexities of American education.
Let’s pause for a moment on a crucial point:
Both Betsy DeVos and Linda McMahon are billionaires.
Both were entrusted with the leadership of the nation’s education system.
Coincidence? I think not.
In the kakistocracy playbook, billionaires are not necessarily chosen because they understand the public good.
They are usually chosen because they can protect the private interests of the powerful — shielding wealth, resisting redistribution, and ensuring that education remains a tool for the few, not the many.
And the infection of kakistocracy hasn’t been limited to K-12 education — it has metastasized into higher education leadership as well.
Consider Ben Sasse, former U.S. senator from Nebraska and until recently, the controversial president of the University of Florida.
Appointed under an opaque selection process in 2022 — where he was named the sole finalist with reportedly minimal faculty or student input — Sasse’s presidency became a prime example of political meddling in public universities.
Faculty overwhelmingly opposed his appointment, citing his history of hostility toward LGBTQ+ rights and his lack of experience leading a major public research institution.
Shortly after taking office, Sasse failed to shield academic freedom from political assault, as Florida’s universities faced new laws weakening tenure protections, banning DEI initiatives, and enforcing political litmus tests through re-accreditation schemes.
Under Sasse’s watch, faculty governance crumbled, students were expelled for protest, and administrative decisions increasingly prioritized political expediency over academic principle according to various critiques.
In July 2024, citing family health issues, Sasse abruptly resigned — leaving behind a demoralized campus and a university system that, according to the American Association of University Professors, had experienced severe political and ideological assault during his short tenure.
And here’s the final kicker:
The University of Florida will pay Ben Sasse over $1 million per year through at least 2028 under his severance agreement. (Source: Miami Herald, August 27, 2024)
Here is the reward for political connections and compliance — even when leadership falls short for students, faculty, and the public mission of higher education.
In Sasse’s case, loyalty to the political agenda of Governor Ron DeSantis — rather than a commitment to educational excellence — appeared to be a true qualification for leadership.
Another chapter in the kakistocracy playbook.
The Dangerous Consequences
What happens when kakistocracy rules education?
- Knowledge is devalued. Expertise is framed as “elitist,” while ignorance is reframed as “authentic.”
- Students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and marginalized communities are scapegoated. Educational equity efforts are dismantled under the guise of “neutrality” or “fairness.”
- Curriculum is politicized. Critical histories are erased. Science and inquiry give way to ideological indoctrination.
- Faculty, teachers, and staff are silenced. Fear replaces free inquiry. Loyalty tests replace professional standards.
- Public trust erodes. The very institutions designed to create an informed citizenry become battlegrounds for disinformation and division.
We are living through the consequences of kakistocracy. And if we are not vigilant, we will live through worse.
Resisting the Worst
In her address, Janelle Scott reminded us that resistance to kakistocracy requires vigilance, courage, and solidarity. It demands that we refuse to normalize the abnormal.
It requires that we:
- Defend expertise and academic freedom even when it is politically inconvenient.
- Support leaders with courage and vision, not just those who are “safe” or “neutral.”
- Call out bad faith actors who seek to undermine education from within.
- Organize, vote, advocate, and educate relentlessly.
We must also remember that kakistocracy thrives when good people stay silent. As Frederick Douglass once said, “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
A Closing Reflection
Coming out of AERA 2025, I am both sobered and energized. We are confronting forces that are gleefully dismantling decades of progress in education and civil rights. But we are also witnessing a community of scholars, educators, and activists who are refusing to bow, refusing to retreat, and refusing to forget that education at its best is an act of liberation.
Kakistocracy may be knocking at the door of our schools, our colleges, and our communities.
But so are truth, courage, and collective action.
There are still plenty of university presidencies, superintendencies, and commissioner positions open today in Texas, Florida, and beyond — fertile ground for further kakistocratic practices.
We must watch carefully not just who is hired, but why they are chosen.
And we must speak out, loudly and without hesitation, when loyalty and ideology are prioritized over competence, integrity, and service to the public good — whether the culprits are Republicans, Democrats, or anyone else willing to sacrifice excellence for politics.
At Cloaking Inequity, I choose to call out problematic practice with the freedom afforded me via the US Constitution. I choose the side of the people, not the powerful.
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