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Since the government shut down on October 1, the squatter’s administration has furloughed at least 670,000 federal employees and issued reduction in force (RIF) notices to about 4,100 more employees across various agencies, including more than 400 Department of Education employees. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, threatened that these RIF notices, or government layoffs, could extend to more than 8,000 employees during the shutdown.
At the end of October, a federal judge barred the RIF notices, which have come amid the administration’s ongoing crusade to reduce the federal workforce and fill whatever jobs that remain with the squatter’s sycophants. “RIF” has become an ominous verb: Nobody wants to be RIF’ed, because that would mean that you’ve lost your job due to it being permanently eliminated.
Though the RIF notices are on hold, the administration is using the shutdown to accelerate its crusade to disinvest in the federal government. The squatter has made no secret of his burning desire to shutter the Department of Education altogether, and because only Congress has the legal authority to do that, he’s opting to cut off federal agencies from the manpower they need to do their jobs. The RIF’ing of Department of Education employees prompted a coalition of more than 350 national, state, and local disability, civil rights, and education organizations to condemn the layoffs.
“Without personnel to oversee these laws, the Department [of Education] cannot provide essential leadership, oversight, guidance, or support to states and schools—jeopardizing students’ access to a free, appropriate public education and hampering the ability of states and localities to serve all students,” a statement from the National Center for Learning Disabilities said.
The attack on the Department of Education can really hurt kids with disabilities because the agency funds and enforces the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Before Congress passed IDEA into law fifty years ago, school districts were under no legal obligation to educate disabled kids. They could (and often did) just turn us away, even though schools are public entities.
I still hear stories about schools trying to shirk their legal responsibilities under IDEA, but at least the law gives some leverage to parents, guardians, and others who are fighting for the right of disabled kids to receive a free and appropriate public education. If they feel that a school district is not fully living up to its legal obligations in this regard, they can file a grievance with their state’s education agency. This can be an effective tactic—but if there aren’t enough employees to keep up with all of the grievances, it sends a message to school district officials that they shouldn’t worry about enforcement because the executive branch doesn’t take it seriously.
And what good is a law if it isn’t enforced?