A Call to Action

What does advocacy have to do with politics? A lot, actually. Think about the level of advocacy it took for Women's Suffrage, for the Civil Rights Movement, and for the Disability Rights Movement. The rights of our citizens were won by the individuals and advocates who fought and advocated for them tirelessly.

As you can probably guess, this post is being written because the 2024 Presidential Election is looming. And I'm scared. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the proximity of discrimination is so close you can feel it breathing down your neck. And that's because it has never truly been vanquished. No matter your stance on abortion, the truth remains that after fifty years of precedent, a woman's right to bodily autonomy was stripped from her. And if rights can be stripped from women, who's next?

Historically, those with disabilities have been segregated, excluded, feared, hated, mocked, tortured, and even killed.

For example, in 1907, a eugenic sterilization law for people with disabilities was enacted in Indiana. Though other states had tried, Indiana was the first to get theirs through. In 1927 the law is ruled constitutional. Yeah, you read that right. The highest court in the land said it is totally fine for people to be forcibly sterilized on the basis of disability. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the majority, "It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind." This ruling was never overturned. (Oh, and by the way, 31 states have laws that allow forced sterilization, some passed as recently as 2019.)

As another example, between 1939 to 1941, the Nazis systematically murder between 75,000 to 250,000 people with physical or intellectual disabilities, calling them "mercy killings" of "life unworthy of life."

Life unworthy of life. Please pause and sit with that a moment.

I know we like to think that we are now a society enlightened, that we value all life, and that we accept disability as a natural part of that life. But... do we?

I'm going to bring this back into the context of education, because that's my area of focus. Disabled kids were routinely excluded from school altogether until the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) in 1975. (The law was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990.)

And it wasn't until 2017 when the Supreme Court ruled that students with disabilities should be making meaningful progress in school. Prior to that, as long as the student made some progress, the school could claim it fulfilled its obligation, even if some was incredibly meaningless.

Those dates are not ancient history. Why was it acceptable to completely exclude kids with disabilities until 1975? And why was it okay to let disabled kids sit idle in classrooms until they were old enough to drop out until 2017? The answer is very simple- discrimination. Conscious or unconscious, we are a society who does not value and respect disabled people.

Disabled individuals (self-advocates) and nondisabled advocates have been working for decades to improve the education system for students with disabilities. It is a constant fight, student by student, court case by court case. IDEA is imperfect. But there are guardrails and procedures and a federal standard by which all states must comply.

So when presidential candidates begin talking about abolishing the Department of Education, I start listening. This is the same person who during his first term appointed Betsy DeVos, a billionaire with zero experience in education, as the secretary of education. She promoted the privatization of public schools through vouchers, called for deep cuts to federal funding, and rolled back protections for vulnerable children. Those are all bad things if you are a student with a disability, a student with low economic means, or a student who lives in a rural area. And lucky for us (heavy on the sarcasm here), DeVos, who called for the elimination of the Department of Education at a Moms for Liberty event in July, has expressed an interest in leading the department once more.

“I’m going to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states. And we’re going to do it fast." ~ Donald Trump Sept 23 in Indiana, PA

And though he has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Donald Trump's plan to dismantle the Department of Education is paramount in the 44-page education section of the "Mandate for Leadership."

Why does dismantling the Department of Education matter to students with disabilities?

• Over 180,000 teaching jobs would be lost due to the elimination of Title I affecting over 2.8 million students. We need more teachers, not less.

• Over 800,000 preschoolers, toddlers, and infants would lose early learning services under Project 2025's elimination of Head Start. Know any families who need Head Start for their child? Because I sure do.

• "School choice" is a sham that subsidizes tuition for families who already have students enrolled in private schools. It does this by diverting public school dollars to vouchers. Some have called these vouchers "Welfare for the Rich." Guess what happens to public schools when you constantly siphon money off of their already tight budgets? Nothing good!

• Project 2025 would weaken regulations against charter schools that often already have little to no accountability to taxpayers or parents. Charter schools also take away funding from public schools. Again, less funding for public schools is not good. By the way, 90% of US students attend public school, not private or charter school.

• The huge obvious problem with dismantling the Department of Education is that the quality of education will vary widely depending on where you live. Inequities that already exist will grow. But hey, Donald says 35 of the states will do great, and 20 more of them will be Norway. (35 + 20 = 50???) But also, Norway is considered great. Google it for yourself to see how far off the US is and realize that nothing Trump has proposed even comes close to Norway's policies.

“Of the 50, I would bet that 35 would do great, and 15 of them or 20 of them would be as good as Norway. You know Norway is considered great.” ~ Donald Trump Aug 13 on X

What does all that mean for students with disabilities? Fewer resources, less oversight, less accountability, and greater inequities.

Now let's go back to what the Nazis thought about people with disabilities. Life unworthy of life, remember?

"These people, all the expenses. They should just die," ~Donald Trump in 2020 as told to his nephew Fred Trump regarding people with complex issues.

Fred Trump has a son with disabilities. The wealthy Trump family contributes to a fund to assist with his medical expenses. Even Donald consistently contributed. But a couple years after 2020 when Fred called Donald to tell him the fund was running out, Trump responded with,

"Your son doesn't recognize you. Let him die and move to Florida."

Sure, these quotes are as told by the nephew, but given all the vile things Donald Trump says live and on camera, there is little reason to doubt it's true. And there was also this...

As an advocate, I fight discrimination and segregation, both subtle and overt, every day. I work for acceptance and meaningful inclusion. Another Trump presidency will set those efforts back. His supporters follow his example. If he can mock, they can mock. If he can hate and devalue, they can hate and devalue. His words and his behavior prove he does not value or respect the lives of disabled people. Life unworthy of life. He's shown you exactly who he is.

I am a lifelong Republican. But basic human decency and the character of our leader must take priority over party.

I implore you to join me in voting for Kamala Harris.