Over the weekend, the Trump administration fired almost all employees in the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The mass dismissals were part of President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought’s attempts to pressure Democrats to cave to their demands, as the government shutdown continues. The firings also fit neatly with Trump’s track record on these issues. Throughout his career, Trump has shown little regard for people with disabilities. As president, he has sought to abolish the Department of Education and tapped Linda McMahon, a former WWE executive with scant experience in education, to neuter the department.
The administration’s decision to remove almost all personnel for the special education office is not just a betrayal of students with disabilities. It also is the final nail in the coffin for Republican support of the idea that people with disabilities can and should access public education so that they can empower themselves and live a fulfilling life.
If Trump and Vought succeed in gutting of the office overseeing special education, they will end a decades-long record of achievement of which the GOP could be justifiably proud. Republicans used to understand that special education isn’t just something nice thing to have. It isn’t charity. It is a right. Republican presidents signed the bills that codified the right to a Free Appropriate Public Education for millions of Americans. Now, the White House’s cuts risk the freedom and liberty for people with disabilities that took the better part of 50 years to build.
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