A prominent Republican U.S. Senator is praising the Trump administration’s aggressive push to drastically slash staffing, programs, and the scope of the U.S. Department of Education, as it aims for its complete elimination. U.S. Senator Jim Banks of Indiana asserts that the federal laws overseen by the agency—particularly those protecting children, including minority and disabled students—will be enforced by all 50 states.
In general, states lack the legal authority and jurisdiction to enforce federal law.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced on Tuesday that approximately 50% of the workforce of her agency, about 1300 employees, will be terminated. She said it is the first step in entirely eliminating the agency, which technically would require an act of Congress.
“This has been a long time coming,” Banks told Fox News, urging Congress to “abolish” the Department of Education. Banks also pushed so-called “school choice,” programs which allow taxpayer dollars to be used for private and religious schools.
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“I think it’s simple,” Senator Banks, a far-right Republican and former Chair of the ultra-conservative House Republican Study Committee, told Fox News on Wednesday (video below) when asked how disabled school children will be protected without the federal agency.
“That will be done at the state level. A federal bureaucrat who’s in Washington, D.C., can’t protect schools and kids in Indiana,” Banks insisted. “Getting the federal government out of the way and letting schools take care of these issues with those tax dollars — more tax dollars will be spent at the local level — will help that happen in a much better way.”
Senator Banks’ own state of Indiana has a less than stellar record of compliance with federal — and even its own state — nondiscrimination laws, going back as far as the 1940s and 1950s.
Later, Senator Banks declared, “It’s long past time that we have a President who is serious about getting the federal government out of education.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced on Wednesday that she will take the Trump administration to court over its attempts to shut down the Department of Education.
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“The U.S. Department of Education is vital to our students, our teachers, our parents, and countless communities across our nation. Gutting this agency is illegal and will harm millions. We will once again see this administration in court,” James wrote.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s website, the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children.”
That federal law prior to 1990 was called the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). It was enacted “in 1975 to support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the results for infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their families.”
The Dept. of Education also noted that “Before EHA, many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. In 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or had an intellectual disability.”
Watch the video below or at this link.