Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has labeled a solar eclipse research initiative for kids as part of the “radical left’s woke nonsense.”

As Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, Cruz led an “investigation” into how the Biden administration supposedly “diverted billions from scientific research to DEI activists.” The resulting report claimed that $2 billion of the National Science Foundation’s budget “went to questionable projects that promoted DEI or pushed neo-Marxist perspectives about enduring class struggle.”

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Cruz released a database of programs he believes have been corrupted by wokeness, and included on that list is physicist Corinne Brevik’s live, interactive broadcast of the 2024 solar eclipse for middle school students.

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The project allowed kids living in the path of totality to interact with others across the country who were not in the path. “You can literally watch the kids watching the eclipse and hear that moment of ‘Whoa!’ ” she told NPR. “It got a lot of kids who wouldn’t necessarily have had a chance to see it out to observe.”

Brevik said it’s “frustrating” having her work called out in this manner. “The sole goal was to share what’s happening with everybody. It’s not propaganda; there’s no background or agenda. Our goal is to help educate our youth.”

The database included over 3,400 grants that supported research on everything from cancer-causing proteins to increasing the safety of self-driving cars.

Joshua Weitz, a University of Maryland biologist, did not have his research added to the database but called it “ludicrous” that Cruz flagged so much important work.

 “[Cruz] is using his position as a senator to make a big noise about fundamental research and mis-categorizing what’s going on in the research and technology sector in this country,” he told NPR. “If one looks at this list, you find things that we should absolutely be proud of funding.”

Tammie Visintainer is another grantee whose work Cruz targeted, going so far as to mention her in a press release for using “her classroom as a venue for social activism” because she said her course “‘centers racial justice in science education.’”

Visintainer, a professor of science education at San Jose State University, told NPR she took her name off her office door after the callout because she feared for her safety. Her project was focused on working with teachers and students to create community-based research about extreme heat and urban heat islands in diverse communities.

“The radical work that is being attacked is students walking around in their community, collecting temperature data or looking at maps and identifying a local issue of heat,” she said.

Cruz’s investigation was in adherence with Donald Trump’s  executive order on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” The order called DEI programs “illegal and immoral” and said they “demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”

“These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” the memo claimed.

According to the NSF website, the government cannot pull funding from active grants, but it does still have the right to “take action for reasons not related to compliance with the executive orders, such as violations of law, regulation or current NSF grant terms and conditions.” But many scientists are worried that could change.

“What worries me is that the intent is to dismantle U.S. scientific leadership,” Weitz said. “If you stop this kind of work, how are you going to get the next advanced materials or quantum computing or the next cancer drug or treatment for heart disease?”

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