\n<\/p>\n
Road trips have become synonymous with turning points in Jane Hodgdon\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
As a teacher in Colorado in the 1990s, she swore she would never go back to the East Coast, where she grew up, and work for the federal government, even as she often worked weekends and summers in local restaurants to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
But in 1999, she set out on a road trip with her then-husband to visit a handful of graduate programs she was considering. That trip ended in her home state of Maryland, where she had planned to stay for a while. <\/p>\n
Hodgdon and her husband decided to split, and when he returned to Colorado, Hodgdon realized she really needed money. So, after talking with a friend who worked in the federal government, she accepted a job at the U.S. Department of Education that she had vowed just weeks earlier she\u2019d never take.<\/p>\n
She spent the next two decades and change there, working with recipients of department grants that, among other things, helped schools provide more support to students and become community service hubs where entire families could access child care, health care, housing, and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cFate always has her way,\u201d Hodgdon said.<\/p>\n
Just shy of 25 years later, this spring, she found herself on another life-changing road trip.<\/p>\n
This time, it started because of loss, not opportunity, as President Donald Trump made good on a promise to shrink the Education Department.<\/p>\n
Hodgdon took an early retirement offer in early March to avoid what felt like an inevitable termination\u2014by mid-March, the department had shed half its staff. She said she made the decision to ensure she and her two sons, one in college and one a junior in high school, could maintain health care coverage. She\u2019s among about 2,000 people who were employed by the federal agency when Trump took office and are no longer working there.<\/p>\n
When she left, she was working on the Full-Service Community Schools Program, a $150 million grant program that helps schools\u2014particularly those where high percentages of students in poverty\u2014become those service hubs for students, their families, and community members.<\/p>\n
It was a blow for Hodgdon, 52, and the end of her tenure came abruptly, severing her ties with educators and community members from across the country she had worked with since the start of the 2000s.<\/p>\n
But suddenly, Hodgdon had an abundance of time and an enduring connection to those she had supported in her work.<\/p>\n
She was already planning on a trip to Colorado for her niece\u2019s high school graduation in May. So, instead of flying, Hodgdon loaded up her 7-year-old bernedoodle, Maxine, into her Subaru station wagon, made some phone calls to line up visits to programs she had worked with, and hit the road.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur ability to communicate with anybody beyond the Department of Education staff was cut off so abruptly, and it felt like I needed\u2014I wanted\u2014more closure,\u201d Hodgdon said.<\/p>\n
Hodgdon\u2019s route spanned just under 6,000 miles and took her from Atlanta\u2014where she visited a Full-Service Community Schools grantee\u2014to Tulsa, Okla., where she visited an arm of the Promise Neighborhoods program that she had worked with from afar for more than a decade. Albuquerque, N.M., Skokie, Ill., and Simpsonville, Ky., were also on her itinerary.<\/p>\n
At each stop, Hodgdon spent a day with people running programs that support the nation\u2019s neediest children. She listened to their stories and, more often than not, their concerns about the programs\u2019 sustainability as Trump\u2019s proposed budget cuts threaten their viability.<\/p>\n
Trump is proposing $12 billion in cuts to the U.S. Department of Education budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The proposal includes consolidating 18 grant programs into a \u201cK-12 Simplified Funding Program\u201d with $4.5 billion less than is currently provided collectively and eliminating other K-12 programs.<\/p>\n
Congress might not accept every element of the budget proposal, but if it became law as is, some programs Hodgdon worked on in her time at the Education Department would cease to exist.<\/p>\n
While at the federal agency, she spent: <\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me proud that I have operated in a way to build so much trust with these people in these communities that they invite me in, share their work with me, they value my opinion and insights, and are willing to share the challenges they\u2019re experiencing,\u201d Hodgdon said. \u201cIt\u2019s rewarding, but it\u2019s also bittersweet because we see all of these proposals to really cut or eliminate a lot of this work, and folks are scared. I saw that across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s budget proposes the elimination of the Full-Service Community Schools Program, and to roll the Promise Neighborhoods and Statewide Family Engagement Centers into the K-12 Simplified Funding Program.<\/p>\n
Despite it all, Hodgdon isn\u2019t bitter about how her Education Department tenure ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain so grateful for the 25 years that I spent at the Department of Education, the work that I was able to do, the communities that I was able to work with,\u201d she said. \u201cThe people I\u2019ve gotten to know are just tremendous, and I\u2019ll always carry that with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hodgdon went into each visit with the intent of \u201cbearing witness\u201d to the work of educators and others. Site visits were scaled back during her time at the Education Department, she said, so she often didn\u2019t get an on-the-ground look at the successes and challenges of the programs she worked with.<\/p>\n
In some cities, she was a \u201cfly on the wall,\u201d sitting in on meetings where school leaders pored over data from a schoolwide survey or attending local government town halls where residents advocated for education funding. In some, her visit was the main event, complete with itineraries and tours.<\/p>\n
Some of her friends and colleagues encouraged her to share more of her insights on social media or to take more photos and videos.<\/p>\n
But Hodgdon wanted to be present and authentic. The trip was as much for the people she visited as it was for her\u2014an opportunity to show that, no matter what, somebody cared about their experiences, concerns, wins, and struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really grounded in what I was doing and why, and I think there\u2019s a risk of, if I were trying to make this into something really social media-heavy, that could have unintentionally shifted my purpose,\u201d Hodgdon said. \u201cI might be thinking about things with a slightly different lens, and I didn\u2019t want that.\u201d<\/p>\n
One day, somewhere between Tulsa and Albuquerque, Hodgdon was staring down at her atlas, looking for a place to stop. She needed Wi-Fi and some privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love a map,\u201d Hodgdon said.<\/p>\n
As she scanned it, she brushed her finger along that day\u2019s route until she found a small town just big enough to have a public library where she could camp out for an hour.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Hodgdon logged onto Zoom and interviewed for the job she would just a few days later be offered and accept.<\/p>\n
The road trip\u2014originally intended as a postmortem of her federal career\u2014had instead reinvigorated her and inspired her to continue working to support schools. Her new role is with the organization Partners for Rural Impact, which works in rural areas across the country, partnering with schools to increase students\u2019 access to high-quality services such as mental health care, preschool, and other support to help them succeed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it actually has done is really reinforced my commitment to this work\u2014where we\u2019re thinking about schools and communities and the families that make up those schools\u2014and that all of our progress is going to be done in community and in connection with one another. I am reinvigorated and I\u2019m just more committed than ever to this work.\u201d<\/p>\n
On June 12, after 31 days on the road, Hodgdon walked into her home in Ellicott City, Md.<\/p>\n
While Maxine got readjusted, Hodgdon dropped her bags and sifted through the keepsakes folks had given her along the way\u2014water bottles, buttons, T-shirts, magnets\u2014all commemorating what she called the \u201ctrip of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t home for long before she set out on another adventure.<\/p>\n
On June 16, Hodgdon started her new role at Partners for Rural Impact. The organization is based in Berea, Ky., but Hodgdon will work remotely with frequent visits to the Bluegrass State.<\/p>\n
She traveled to Kentucky for her first few days to get her bearings and meet her new colleagues.<\/p>\n
This time, she took a flight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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