Linda McMahon was nominated for a position that Trump ultimately wants to destroy

As Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominees for Education Secretary, is sitting for a Senate Confirmation Hearing Thursday, it is important to remember that Trump is Reportedly considering signing a executive order that seeks to eliminate the education department.

There have been Republicans who have wanted to dismantle the department since Congress created it under President Jimmy Carter’s administration in 1979. In his State of the Union address in 1982, for example President Ronald Reagan said he would remove the department. It is not surprising that Project 2025 – which Trump claimed he knew nothing about the campaign track, even when he adopted many parts of the frame – also calls for the department’s dismantling.

There have been Republicans who have wanted to run the education department since Congress created it in 1979.

It is unnecessary to say that a president cannot unilaterally eliminate a state agency without a congressional act. To regret the education department would almost certainly be challenged by the courts, as many of Trump’s other political initiatives are challenged.

According to the education department it is Basic and secondary programs Serve more than 50 million students in about 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. The department notes that its “grants, loans and work study” programs help “more than 12 million postsecondary students.”

In addition to the education department that does so much for so many people, it is an irreplaceable lifeline for students with disabilities. And Trump’s desire to dismantle it – along with his choice Robert F. Kennedy Jr. To act as secretary of health and human services – rightly alert the parents of disabled students.

Kennedy is expected to be confirmed as HHS secretary of the full Senate Thursday. Last week, before members of Senat’s Finance Committee voted for this nomination, Trump wrote on social media: “We need Bobby !!!” When he was wrongly claimed that autism prices have sprung from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 34 in 20 years.

Kennedy, of course, has helped to spread the lie that childhood vaccines have caused an increase in the number of people who have autism.

As for the numbers, in 2005 About 1 out of 166 children had been diagnosed with autism. Today the number 1 out of 36. The truth is that there are more diagnoses because the definition of what counts as autism has been expanded.

The persons with Disability Education Act of 1990, an approval of what had been the education for disabled children, included autism as a covered disability and as a result, Schools had to report the number of students it earned.

Counting children with disabilities is one of a handful of ways, the education department that enforces idea, serves students with disabilities and their families. But if Trump and Republicans have their way, these crucial protections may soon be eroded.

“I have witnessed the transformative power of education, both in the classroom and also in apprenticeship programs,” McMahon said in a statement in November. “I look forward to working with students – teachers – parents and communities to strengthen our education system; To ensure that each child regardless of their demographics is prepared for a bright future. “

It is impossible to squeeze his promise to look after any child’s needs with the idea in Project 2025 that “(M) OST IDEA funding should be converted to a no-string formula block grant targeting students with disabilities and distributed direct to local education agencies. “Project 2025 also proposes to move IDEA views with HHS.

The federal government has promised to cover 40% of the average expenses per year. Pupil, but on average it only uses half so much.

Removing the strings would effectively kill the requirements to ensure students’ inclusion. As Jack Pitney, a former Republican National Committee researcher and expert on autism, said: “Idea is not a civil rights law that applies everywhere. Its requirements are conditions for federal assistance – also known as ‘strict.’ “Pitney continued:“ When you cut the strings, you intestine the law. “

Despite the promise of the law to give students a “free suitable public education”, this is often not the case. It is not my intention here to defend the way the United States educates students with disabilities. In 1975 the Congress promised Cover 40% of the average expenses per-pupil And later changed the promise of saying it would cover a “maximum” of 40%. But on average, the government uses only half as much as it promised to use in 1975. A lack of funding contributes to the schools not having enough staff to give disabled students the education they deserve.

Congress has not done that Approved idea since 2004. An evaluation of 2024 of how it is implemented found that most states Necessary assistance in implementing the requirements for either students aged 3 to 21 years or students 2 and younger. Things need to be better. Parents have the right to get frustrated with the bureaucracy.

And it is impossible to imagine that things will be better if the education department is removed because the department has had the role of enforcing idea, as anchored protection for people with disabilities in a way that previous generations of students did not have. It allowed them to have individualized educational plans tailored to their success.

In 1970, only 1 out of 5 students with disabilities went to public school. Nearly 1.8 million children were Excluded from public schools in 1970. Now is approx. 15% of the students in Public schools receive special education services. This must be celebrated.

In 1970, only 1 out of 5 students with disabilities attended public school.

Furthermore, the alternative that Trump and Republicans propose – school coupons or educational savings accounts – would be inadequate. Although vouchers are marketed as an alternative for students with disabilities is a government responsibility Report from 2017 Found that many private schools do not inform families with disabled children that they have fewer rights under idea when moving from public to private schools.

Educational programs for students with disabilities do not work as they should. This is an area where Trump and contributors to Project 2025 have a core of truth. But putting McMahon and Kennedy responsible or throwing the education department would cause these already vulnerable students more harm.