3/13/25 - Deeper dives into the U.S. Department of Education
Once again, I can't help thinking about what disabled people would be advocating for in education, in a different timeline, under different election outcomes. We would be fighting for stronger, more effective enforcement of disabled kids' right to an equal education, in regular classrooms alongside their non-disabled classmates, with necessary supports they and their parents didn't have to fight so hard to receive. We would be advocating one more time for full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Instead we are trying protect the meager, imperfect services, supports, and protections we have from multiple simultaneous wrecking balls. These three articles bring us more or less up to date.
Education Department Fires 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff
Michael C. Bender and Dana Goldstein, New York Times - March 12, 2025
"The layoffs mean that the department, which started the year with 4,133 employees, will now have a work force of about half that size after less than two months with President Trump in office. In addition to the 1,315 workers who were fired on Tuesday, 572 employees accepted separation packages offered in recent weeks and 63 probationary workers were terminated last month."
What dismantling the Education Department means for kids with disabilities
Anna North, Vox.com - March 13, 2025
"It’s a truly scary time for families of disabled kids, because even if laws are not repealed, there is a question of to what degree they’re going to be enforced."
Conservatives’ decades-long quest to destroy the Department of Education
Andrew Prokop, Vox.com - March 12, 2025
"Conservative activists have been dreaming of dismantling the Department of Education for decades ... They’re halfway there."
It looks like the U.S. Department of Education is "winning" the race to be the first disability-adjacent federal agency to be truly ransacked. Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare may be next.
The linked articles provide both general and disability-specific background on what it all means for students with disabilities, as well as why the Education Department is being targeted at all. The second piece, in an interview format, is especially informative, and looks ahead to some frightening possibilities ahead. It also summarizes the issues surrounding 17 states' attempt to get Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act ruled unconstitutional.
As for why the Education Department is being targeted, it seems like it's not mainly because of any great desire to destroy disability services and supports – at least not on the surface. It mostly comes from much broader ideological obsessions about the role of public education in American society. Of course, political and historical reasons are interesting and instructive, but only matter up to a point. How gutting and likely dismantling the department will affect actual disabled students and their families matters a whole lot more.
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