President Trump abolishes the ” Let Girls Learn” program, established by the then first lady Michelle Obama back in 2015, geared towards assisting adolescent girls in developing countries.
While aspects of the initiative’s programming will continue, employees have been told to stop using the “Let Girls Learn” name and were told that, as a program unto itself, “Let Girls Learn” was ending.
“Moving forward, we will not continue to use the ‘Let Girls Learn’ brand or maintain a stand-alone program,” read an email sent to Peace Corps employees this week by the agency’s acting director Sheila Crowley.
Hours after CNN reported on an internal document advising administration employees that the education initiative would not be maintained, President Trump abolishes the program but the White House said the program had not changed.
The White House originally referred questions about the program to representatives of first lady Melania Trump, who declined to comment.
In its comment, the White House did not say whether “Let Girls Learn” would be maintained in the future as a standalone program — and they also did not directly address the memo or why it had been sent.
The memo came the same day President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue, was visiting an elementary school in suburban Virginia to announce changes to another initiative spotlighted by the former first lady, healthy school lunches. “providing regulatory flexibility for the National School Lunch Program” during a visit to Catoctin Elementary School in Leesburg, Perdue was set to unveil a rule change. Like “Let Girls Learn,” improving the nutritional quality of school meals was a major focus of Obama’s during her tenure as first lady.
“Rather than altering the current path forward, we hope the agency focuses more on providing technical assistance that can help schools get across the finish line, if they haven’t done so already,” said American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown.
