Is Betsy DeVos Getting Rid of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services?
Who will Betsy DeVos choose to run the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)? Anyone? Will she leave the position vacant? Will the U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services be dismantled?
Education Week is reporting she hasn’t chosen anyone yet. One would think, since she didn’t understand the meaning of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), she would have wanted someone in this job immediately. But there the position sits, with someone temporarily sitting in.
Is Betsy DeVos disorganized? Or, is something sinister going on?
Not placing anyone at the helm of OSERS to advocate for students with special needs could be one way to hit the program hard in such a way it may not recover. With no one advocating for the children, the federal government would be able to make budget cuts to special education and use the money for other projects.
Many Republicans advocate for the end of the U.S. Department of Education. Sometimes it is not clear to them exactly what the federal government does for public schools. But there are many programs that depend on the department. IDEA is one of those programs. It is a federal mandate.
A while back the Center for American Progress outlined how eliminating this department would affect education in general and more specifically special education. Five million children and students with disabilities would lose $12.7 billion used every Is Betsy DeVos Getting Rid of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services?:
