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By Alfonso Julián Camacho
Attacks on the U.S. Department of Education hit a little close to home.
Without the DOE I would not be writing this column in a college newspaper. I would not be writing at all.
I have a particularly difficult relationship with the Department of Education, as students like me tend to go unseen beyond our disability. I am autistic and non-speaking and have had to battle my entire life to become an educated person.
That said, I value the benefits of a federally-mandated team of professionals focused on our educations. Otherwise – unfortunately – we would be left to the capricious mercy of the states.
Our 50 states are all over the place when it comes to education policy and practices. They are supposed to be “factories of innovation and experimentation,” but some of our fabulous 50 run their education systems like mad scientists.
For people with disabilities, the map of the U.S. is a minefield. Rights and benefits afforded to individuals with disabilities vary sharply from state to state. Thankfully, the U.S. has a Department of Education, with federal oversight over all states to outline and enforce minimum standards.
There is, however, something even the DOE cannot stop. “State shopping” remains a common practice in our country. Families with disabled children may not have programs or support in their home state, so they flee to another that does. It is the 2025 equivalent of the Dust Bowl where families abandon their dessicated farms for states with water.
Mr. Trump’s threats to close the Department of Education worry me. Too many states provide bare minimum educational support and do not serve students like me.
My family members are educational refugees. My parents moved to another school district in search of a better education in a community that believes students with disabilities are learners with meaningful futures. My mother asked every therapist and fellow disability parent she knew where to find educational utopia. The answer was whispered to her, then we moved.
Talk about state shopping and the answers are not whispered. They are electronically shouted from the rooftops. Not all states believe in their disabled citizens equally and the diminishment trickles down to basic education.
When states veer off track and give up on disabled people like me, the DOE provides guidance – or a hammer, if necessary. A joint statement from the Department of Justice and the Department of Education that recognized letter boards and spelling to communicate as examples of auxiliary aides and services for disabled people was pivotal in opening the door for me to access grade-level academic content. I am writing this column, in large part, thanks to the DOE’s statement.
Where would students like me be had an American president abolished the DOE before that fateful letter-signing day? As I look at the typical outcome of individuals with my disabilities, I cannot bear the thought of sitting in a classroom at my age, 19, hearing the same basic letter and number concepts for the 14th year in a row without ever having written a single word of my thoughts.
Losing the Department of Education would be catastrophic for disabled students. We would lose national standards enforced by a federal agency. Students like me would be toast in many states.
I carved a path outside conventional public education, yet the protections of the DOE profoundly impacted my life. I understand the president’s stated interest in eliminating propaganda and indoctrinating material. Education should teach us how to think, not what to think. An unbiased learning environment is a great goal, assuming that is really his intent. A policy adjustment is one thing, destroying the entire DOE is quite another. Transferring or eliminating functions of the DOE puts our national education system at risk by eliminating the education specialists. Private schools, by the way, rarely assist people with disabilities. We are not profitable.
A DOE migration will follow its demise. Affluent Americans will move to better states, but the disadvantaged will be at the mercy of their home state. People with disabilities are at risk of lifelong deficits due to subpar education. So much for the pursuit of happiness.
