The Administration is also proposing to cut billions of dollars sent from the federal government to districts. And is supporting an expensive federal voucher scheme.
During this tumultuous year at the U.S. Department of Education that saw about half of the 4,133 employees leave due to layoffs, buyouts and early retirements, the staff at the Office of Special Education Programs stayed mostly stable.
That changed on Friday, however, when the Trump administration issued reduction-in-force notices across the federal government, including at the Education Department. Court filings show that 466 employees at the Education Department were impacted and several special education association leaders say most of the OSEP staff was laid off.
Raising Concerns
NASDSE said it was “confused and concerned” by the staffing changes, adding that the Education Department under the Trump administration has repeatedly said it supports federal funding and implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and special education for children with disabilities.
“These RIFs, if true, will make it impossible for the Department to fulfill those responsibilities,” the NASDSE statement said. “There is significant risk that not only will Federal funding lapse, but children with disabilities will be deprived” of a free, appropriate public education.
Team Trump focuses on being mean on purpose. To inflict pain and cause compliance through fear.
The latest evidence for this is found in the Administration using the current government shutdown to weaken the Department of Education:
Sweeping layoffs announced Friday by the Trump administration landed another body blow to the U.S. Department of Education, this time gutting the office responsible for overseeing special education, according to multiple sources within the department.
The reduction-in-force, or RIF, affects the dozens of staff responsible for roughly $15 billion dollars in special education funding, and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities.
The latest edition of the Trump Presidency is about control – about achieving compliance with a radical view of how America should be and doing so by any means necessary.
The bottom line: It’s about fear. When children learn to fear the state, they learn that compliance minimizes pain.
Governing by fear is how dictators get and maintain a grip on power. You may dream of a better way, but you don’t actively seek it because you’ve learned: The state shuts down any unauthorized ideas.
As Anne Lutz Fernandez notes:
A new report on US immigration policy and mental health confirms what should be obvious: mass deportations are deeply harmful to children in migrant and mixed-status families. And when masked men grab a parent from the school car line or the corner coffee shop, all students in that school or neighborhood are subject to trauma and made to understand: The state can make people disappear. It is to be feared.
They also want to cut $4.5 billion from funds for afterschool and summer programs, technology and digital literacy, mental health services, rural schools, literacy instruction, new teacher training, emergency preparedness, magnet schools, services for unhoused children, arts education, American history and civics education, family engagement and more.
Withheld funds or potential cuts could heavily impact Tennessee education programs, where it’s primarily been used to pay for teacher development, after-school programs, and other child care initiatives.
In a statement, Memphis-Shelby County Schools district officials say 100 teacher and staff positions could be impacted if some $17 million is withheld.
House Republicans are not only busy cutting Medicaid, but also working on dismantling American public education while giving the very wealthy a nice tax break.
Yes, a national school voucher scam – supported by President Trump and backed by his former Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos – is taking shape as part of the current budget wrangling.
Here’s what one group that analyzed the bill said:
“. . . we estimate that this tax avoidance maneuver would deprive the federal government and state governments of more than $2 billion in capital gains tax revenue over the next decade. This would come on top of the roughly $21.5 billion cost of the tax credit itself, bringing the net total revenue loss to over $23.6 billion.“
If you wanted to undermine public education – even in states like Kentucky with no vouchers or charter schools – this would be the way to do it.
As an example, Tennessee public school districts are estimated to lose more than $50 million in state investment in year one of the state’s new, universal school voucher scheme.
Dismantling the Department of Education will have devastating impacts
Gov. Bill Lee yesterday celebrated Donald Trump’s “executive order” to dismantle and effectively end the U.S. Department of Education.
Unsurprisingly, the same Governor who relentlessly pushed to destroy public education in Tennessee through a costly and ineffective school voucher scheme also supports this latest very bad idea.
In short: This will be bad. All of it. The end of the Department of Education. The end of public school. The advent of “free market, choose your own adventure” education.
The end result: an exacerbation of income-based inequality. Or, the dream scenario of Project 2025.
While President Trump and his unelected advisor Elon Musk work diligently to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, some pastors in Tennessee on speaking out. The Southern Christian Coalition says the Musk-Trump dismantling will harm Tennessee students and schools.
Pastor Joy Warren, a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister in Murfreesboro, said:
“I know it’s getting exhausting to keep up with all the ways that President Trump and his administration are trying to harm our communities. But I know without a doubt we absolutely must continue speaking up for those under attack in our communities, including children! The firing of half of the Department of Education is just another way to take resources from our children in order to give tax breaks to his billionaire friends.”
