In The Politics of Autism, I write about social services, special education and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond vowed on Friday to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, which he said represented a “clear threat to what our students need to have a good education and a great life.”
“We cannot be caught flatfooted,” Thurmond said, during a news conference.
Thurmond made his pronouncement in Sacramento on Friday while flanked by legislators and education and labor leaders holding up signs saying “Education Is For Everyone” and “Protect All Students.”
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to abolish the department, a long-standing and so far unfulfilled pledge made by Republican leaders dating back to former President Ronald Reagan.
Thurmond said there are concerns that abolishing the department would put at risk some $8 billion that California receives in federal funds for programs serving students with disabilities and those attending low-income schools, both public and private.
“We will not allow that to happen,” he said. “The law will not allow that to happen.”
He observed, for example, that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, guarantees students in special education programs a “free and appropriate education,” and to receive a range of special education services in an individualized education program drawn up for every special education student.
If Congress is reluctant to go that far, Project 2025 has a backup plan: turning IDEA into a no-string block grant. IDEA is not a civil rights act. Its requirements are conditions of aid, aka "strings." If you cut the strings, you gut the protections that students and their families have relied on for decades.
