Trump's Education Appointee has no IDEA about Public Education

Pardon the pun, but Linda McMahon, Trump's Secretary of Education showed how little she knows about public education, as she fires 1,300 dedicated civil servants and sets about to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (US ED).

Last night on the Laura Ingraham Angle, McMahon revealed that she did not know what the acronym "IDEA" stood for. She seemed to surprise even Ingraham who told her IDEA stood for "Individuals with Disabilities Act." Of course, they both forgot the key word "Education" since IDEA exists to ensure that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate education. Most parents of disabled children would know this was not by accident.

McMahon laughed off her ignorance (see video). She had only been in the job for 5 days! Oddly, IDEA has been around for 50 years and has served millions of disabled students, so it is surprising that she would be utterly ignorant of one of the most important education regulations of the last century.

It is obvious that the Trump US ED has once again erased disabled students from existence, just like they erased them from their website the day after his inauguration.

Parents and guardians of children with disabilities know how hard it is to navigate the byzantine system of regulations, testing, and accommodations for their students.

It is painfully clear that under the Trump administration, accessing accommodations and support for disabled students will no longer merely be a Sisyphean task of eternally pushing a rock up a hill, only to have to begin again the next day. Instead, parents and guardians will feel like Prometheus whose guts are ripped out every day as they persistently demand, yet are denied, support and funding for their children's constitutional right to education.