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Federico Waitoller: From the Division of Research of the Council for Exceptional Children, this is
divev, a podcast about equity, diversity and inclusion in special education. I am your host, Federico
Waitoller, professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Welcome to Dive In. Today we are not presenting a full episode, but actually a clip from our prior
episode, a very timely clip.
There's been a lot of talk about dismantling the Department of Education. There's also a lot of
concerns about it. President Trump described the US Department of Education this week as a con
job, stating that he reviewed the ranking, the education rankings and the US ranks 40th globally when
the US holds the top position in terms of cost per student.
Last week, Trump also stated that he wished to close the Department of Education through an
executive order, but acknowledged that he will need the approval of Congress and teachers unions to
fulfill his campaign promise to do so.
But let's clarify first. First, the US Is not the top spender on education. There's other northern countries
like Norway and Finland that speak spends more significant funds on improving their educational
system.
Second, there is no evidence, support or rationale that dismantle of department education will help
students learn or will help our education system.
And there is also no proposal to provide a better system.
So I thought to play you this short clip when I interviewed Mitchell Yell and David Bateman and they
talk in general about the implications of the Trump administration for special education.
So if you haven't watched, listen to that show, go back two episodes back and listen to it. But today
I'm going to play you this clip when they talk specifically about the Department of Education and how
that may impact the educations of students with disabilities.
So if this plan succeeds, let's say they are able to eliminate or dismantle the Department of Education
and do an office under the Health Department with that weaken the IDA or ADA or 544?
Mitch Yell: Probably not.
For one thing, the Department of Education is going to be it's, it's like David Nice said about idea, it'd
be very difficult to get rid of it.
They could do funding things and make it a lot more difficult, but I don't think they can get rid of it. And
I think currently there's some thought in Washington that even if they did, they're going to spin some
stuff off, like for instance, the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Education would go to the
Department of Justice.
The idea might go to Department of Health and Human Services. But I don't think it, I don't think
they're going to get Rid of the Department of Education, I don't think.
Same problem. They can't lose that many votes in the House and they'd have to have to overcome a
filibuster. Assuming all Democrats vote for it, which I think they they will.
I don't think it'll happen. Also actually the Department of Education's only been around since 1986, 11
years after I idea was passed. Ronald Reagan wanted to get rid of it in 1990.
They tried and tried and ran. That was part of their platform of the republicans till about 96 and then
they gave up on it because there was just no chance and because it was very popular and does a lot
of real popular things.
So I don't think that's going anywhere either.
David Bateman: Nicely stated, Mitch. I'm just going to tag on to what you'd very eloquently stated is
yeah, I can't say that the Department of Education in Washington right now is perfect, but what it does
is it provides oversight to help many of these states understand what their roles and responsibilities
are relating to the services of kids.
And I can tell you that the individuals that I've worked with in the Department of Education truly are
trying to do their the best and provide appropriate and meeting the needs of these kids.
Most of these individuals are very, very well, very well situated, very eloquent and very knowledgeable
about what's going on. So it's not like we're placing individuals there who don't know how to work with
kids or know what to go with kids.
But just the Mitch, as Mitch said, the practical barriers are impossible. The historical context, it's not
been done. But I think what if there is? Even if it's parsed out, what we will see is we'll see more
greater disparities from states.
States with fewer resources may struggle to meet IDEA requirements without federal oversight or
funding, which would lead to lead to greater inequities as a part of this. And I mean if you look at the
map of which states receive more federal funds right now, it's not the ones you would think of.
It's really interesting. And not just federal special ed funds, but just federal funds in general. If you look
at where they are, the federal government is propping up some of these states and some of these
states.
Federico Waitoller: Can you mention some?
David Bateman: A lot of the states in the South, Wyoming and Alaska, also what we typically refer to
as red states, they receive a lot more funds from the federal government than some of the other
states per capita.
And we have to realize that some of these states would really struggle without the support that the
federal government provides. Not just an idea, but highway funding, but other things.
There's a lot of money that goes to these, these localities as a part of this. So it would be really
interesting. It would be. It would. It would disproportionately hurt some of the poorer states.
Federico Waitoller: Thank you for listening to Dive In, a podcast about equity, diversity and inclusion
in special education research. This episode was produced by me, Federico Vitolar, with contributions
of Tasia Gonzalez, Kelly Carrero and Haya Abdela Clifford.
I hope you enjoyed the episode and learned as much as I did. Take care and I see you next time.