Mia Love is a Republican in Utah who is running for Congress. She wants to eliminate the Department of Education and the funding that states receive from IDEA. Her opponent, Democrat Jim Matheson points out that doing so would decimate Special Education.
Jim Matheson and Mia Love are candidates from Utah who are running for Congress. Whichever one of them wins the election will have the ability to make an impact upon not only their state but the entire nation. Parents who have children that have special needs, or who are enrolled in Special Education, should pay close attention to Utah this election season. Mia Love want to kill the funding that runs the Special Education program that helps your child.
In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It provides federal funding to states so that each state can provide an education to students who have special needs. If that funding disappears, it will have a negative impact on the resources that are available for the Special Education programs in public schools, and an negative impact on the students who need them.
If elected, Mia Love wants to eliminate the Department of Education. This is the department that allocates IDEA funding. When questioned about this choice, Mia Love responded with:
“I think it’s important for us to do what we can to advocate spending money on a local level. I’m not going to remove that funding from those children without it being allocated on a state level, but we have to find ways that make sure that works… I think we can do it better on a state level”.
She didn’t say that she was not going to cut the IDEA funding if given the opportunity to do so. She didn’t say that she would not remove the funding unless an individual state was able to come up with the amount that would be lost by removing IDEA funding. I’ve checked her website, but it didn’t have any information about how, exactly, states would be able to replace that funding. She didn’t say which department would allocate IDEA funding if she eliminated the Department of Education.
On the other side of the aisle, Jim Matheson had this to say:
“Elections matter and the people we put in office. It matters in making decisions that make a difference. To suggest that somehow Utah can make do without this, go talk to the people who run these special ed programs in our schools…. It’s not feasible, it’s not realistic, and it’s an uninformed position on the part of my opponent.”
These two candidates are running for Congress. Their decisions will impact the entire nation. How well would your child’s school be able to accommodate for his or her needs if the federal funding that comes from the Department of Education, and IDEA, were removed? What resources would your child have taken away from him or her due to budget cuts without that funding?
Image by Michael Jolley on Flickr