Washington, D.C.– The Center for Learner Equity (CLE) condemns the Trump Administration’s gutting of the U.S. Department of Education (Department) through its massive Reduction in Force (RIF) of thousands of staff this week, and will continue to oppose any related federal actions that abolish its important role protecting the rights and preventing discrimination of students with disabilities.
The Department oversees the distribution of critical funding to states, leads data reporting on student learning and experiences, sponsors research guiding instructional best practices for millions of educators, and most importantly – protects the rights of students in schools, especially students with disabilities.
”Without dedicated, expert agency personnel to do this work we lose the safeguards needed to ensure children receive the education programs and services essential to their ability to be successful in school,” says Jennifer Coco, CLE’s Interim Executive Director. “It must be our collective priority to protect and promote the Department’s role to uphold the rights and prevent discrimination of every student, especially students with disabilities. CLE implores our nation’s leaders to remember our recent history, when exclusion from public schools was the norm for students with disabilities, and to not allow the country to move backward.”
Dismantling the Department of Education hurts students, teachers, and communities. This includes:
- 8 million students with disabilities eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including infants and toddlers receiving early intervention services, and an additional 1.5 million students eligible under Section 504.
- 26 million students from low-income backgrounds in urban, rural and suburban communities who rely on federal Title I funding to improve achievement.
- 6 states where more than 20% of the education budget comes from the federal government: Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
- 9.8 million students in rural schools who depend on federal support to bridge funding gaps in communities with more limited local tax bases.
In defending the role of the Department, CLE does not defend maintaining the status quo for students nationwide. For far too many students⸺especially at the intersection of race, poverty, and disability⸺the promise of quality education has not been realized. But gutting the federal agency tasked with protecting and advancing that promise is not the solution to the learning crisis happening for millions of children around the country. And fellow Americans agree: recent polling shows that 63% of Americans oppose eliminating the Department of Education.
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