To the Editor,

In light of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Agency for International Development, I’d like to offer my observations as a former USAID contractor.

In 1991, I was sent to Bulgaria as country coordinator of the USIA (US Information Agency) EFL Fellows Program, a new initiative begun with seed money from USAID to exercise “soft power” in six Eastern European countries that were transitioning from communism following the collapse of the Soviet Union. As professional English as a Second/Foreign Language educators, our objective was to train and assist local teachers of English in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, as well as promote American-style democracy, life and institutions. We (40 fellows and 6 coordinators) were not employees but temporary contractors (similar to Fulbright grant recipients) on a stipend that, while modest by U.S. standards, was reasonably generous by local standards. Each of us was provided with instructional materials and equipment to use at our respective universities, pedagogical institutions and other placements in our assigned host countries.

 My primary role as Bulgaria coordinator involved supervising five fellows at their placements around the country and assisting our embassy in the capital, Sofia, with other English language-related activities. I also helped train undergraduate English majors at several Bulgarian universities to become K-12 public school teachers upon graduation (“pre-service”), as well as provided currently employed teachers of English with USIA-produced instructional materials and academic support (“in-service”).

But most productive was the intensive residential “re-training” program we put together with our Bulgarian counterparts and the Ministry of Education, recruiting, training and certifying as English teachers some 100 professionals from other fields – a widely diverse group that included a professional classical guitarist, a half-dozen members of the national film industry, former teachers of Russian (once required but no longer in demand), and a sizeable cohort of mechanical and civil engineers.

Given Bulgaria’s state-run economy, its collapse meant that virtually everyone was unemployed or under-employed, and the country was beset with bread lines, regular power failures and 3000% inflation. Personally, I must admit I felt somewhat sheepish lecturing about basic American values – material wealth, hard work, rugged individualism – to a classroom of savvy individuals who had spent their entire lives under soul-crushing communism, enduring hardships I could only imagine. I also recall mentioning that my favorite American value was our sense of “fair play” – you don’t kick a guy when he’s down – something I couldn’t manage to say these days with a straight face.  

The start-up money from USAID that first year of the EFL Fellows program was $3 million, or roughly what Elon Musk makes on his investments in the time it takes him to yell “Move fast, break things!” If Elon and his pubescent “muskrats” are so intent on slashing budgets and eliminating government agencies, how about starting with the bloated Department of Defense? (Disclaimer: I worked at EB/Groton for two summers in college.) Even better, the world’s richest man can put his money where his mouth is by returning to the U.S. Treasury the $40 to $60 billion his government investments have earned since Donald Trump won reelection.

Peter Carney

Warwick