What if the constant Twitter wars and kerfuffles are strategic smoke screens to hide what’s really going on in the current administration? Alternately, are policy pronouncements timed to when attention is focused on other headlines (e.g., hurricanes and wildfires)? Diversionary tactics are common in military actions and in dictatorships. Administrations past and present have released unpopular regulations and decrees on Friday evenings after the East Coast broadcast television news deadlines. Even in the current 24-hour news cycle, these announcements tend to evade detection.
The most current example of the smoke screen strategy occurred this month, and was reported in yesterday’s Washington Post. On October 2, when attention was focused on the (non-)response to Hurricane-Maria-ravaged Puerto Rico, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded 72 guidance documents pertaining to the rights of students with disabilities to access education. The official line was that these documents were rescinded “due to being outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective.” For whom, pray tell? Many of these guidances were to help parents navigate the current laws on getting free public education for children with special needs.
Many of you know that this topic is personal for me. My brother was born with spina bifida and had to be bussed to a neighboring town for junior high and high school because my hometown school at those grade levels was inaccessible to a wheelchair. He was bullied at the junior high school, and his desire to do anything in school dissipated thereafter. More recently, my honorary niece has developmental delays due to prenatal lead exposure. Her mother has had to sue the school board on a yearly basis to make sure her daughter receives a high-quality, appropriate education. What about the parents who aren’t as legal-savvy as my friend and need to know how to advocate for their children? Are their children doomed to a lower-quality education that won’t meet their unique needs?
Perhaps instead of seeing the smoke, we should find the fires that are coming out of the administration that have a direct effect on the public, especially the most vulnerable among us.
Recent Comments