Congresswoman Lee, Parents, Educators, & Advocates Warn of Consequences from Executive Order Dismantling Department of Education
Joined by Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities
Above: (L to R) Claire DiPinto, State Senator Shelly Cruz-Crawford, Amanda Morgan, Rep. Susie Lee, Rebecca Dirks Garcia, and Catherine Nielsen
Click HERE for video of the press conference
LAS VEGAS – Today, at Wayne N. Tanaka Elementary School, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) joined local parents of children with learning disabilities who rely on federally funded and protected special education programs, educators, and advocates to sound the alarm on the current administration’s new executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) that the President signed on Thursday. Attendees shared how federal cuts will have a personal impact on their families and students, especially students with learning disabilities.
The DOE provides federal funding for disadvantaged students and is the watchdog for enforcing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A.). Without the department, there is no federal backstop to make sure kids with learning disabilities get the education they are legally entitled to.
Despite the fact that only Congress can shutter the DOE, shutting it down and transferring duties to the state, will effectively be a tax increase for Nevada families. Federal “savings” from cutting the department will go toward wealthy tax cuts and Nevada taxpayers will be caught holding the bag to pay for lost services.
Federal Funding for Nevada Education:
- Nevada received $97.2 million in federal investments for special education last year, affecting nearly 70,000 Nevada students, including over 40,000 in Clark County.
- Nevada K-12 schools receive roughly $993 million annually from the DOE. 17% of CCSD’s budget is federally sourced.
- Nevada has some of the largest class sizes in the country. Dismantling the DOE will make them even larger because educators will be laid off.
- Over half of Clark County’s 385 schools receive federal Title I funding and Nevada received nearly $161 million in Title I funding for low-income schools for the 2024-25 school year.
- $146.4 million in federal Pell Grants were awarded to NSHE students in 2023-2024.
- 31,963 NSHE students received Pell Grants in 2023-2024.
- NSHE institutions received more than $386 million for federal student aid.
More Nevada education data can be found HERE.
Congresswoman Lee was joined by Rebecca Dirks Garcia, a mother of a child with a learning disability, the former Nevada PTA President, and current legislative chair of the Nevada PTA; Catherine Nielsen, a mother of a child with disabilities and Executive Director of the Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities; Claire DiPinto, who is a Collaboration Center Trustee, a parent advocate, and a mother of a child with a learning disability; State Senator Shelly Cruz-Crawford, who is Principal at C.C. Ronnow Elementary School; and Amanda Morgan, Esq., Executive Director for Educate Nevada Now, a nonpartisan organization focused on supporting Nevada's public schools.
“Any ‘savings’ from dismantling the Department of Education won’t go to Nevada students, families, or educators — they will go straight into Elon Musk’s pocket and tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations. Students will suffer – especially those with disabilities – and Nevada taxpayers will be caught holding the bag,” said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “We should be investing in our future, not in Elon Musk’s tax breaks. This executive order will go to the courts and it’s up to all of us to pressure the Republicans controlling Congress to help us protect our kids.”
“As a parent of a child with special needs, you learn real fast as you navigate through the school system in any state that the playing field is not equal for all children, especially with special needs,” said parent and Collaboration Center Trustee Claire DiPinto. “Without federal enforcement, some states could ignore their obligations toward our children's education entirely. And guess who would suffer? Your child, who suffers from autism, who needs speech therapy. That can no longer get it due to budget cuts. Your child, who has dyslexia, who loses access to specialized reading instructions, due to budget cuts. Your child, who has ADHD who relies on classroom aids to help them stay engaged and learning.”
“Thank you, Congresswoman, and thank you for being such a vital advocate for education for so many years. I am the mom of four who, over the last nineteen years, all have benefited from either IEP or 504 protections. For my own kids, I've seen how the additional support and services that they receive have been vital to them accessing their education. The reality is that not all kids think, act, and learn the same way,” said parent, former NV PTA President, and current NV PTA Legislative Chair Rebecca Dirks Garcia. “We already are at a teacher shortage—the last thing we need is one more reason for teachers to be concerned about where their job is and what happens next. Because that trickles down to our kids.”
“I'm a parent of a young child with various disabilities and thank you, Congresswoman Lee, for your exemplary leadership and for shining a spotlight on this critical issue. The Department of Education has been instrumental in ensuring that every child, regardless of their background, their abilities or their ZIP code, has access to high quality education. And this situation is particularly concerning for students with disabilities who depend on federal protections and resources to guarantee that they have the same opportunities as their peers, including my child and the children of the parents that are up here today,” said parent and Nevada Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities Executive Director Catherine Nielsen. “Abandoning these safeguards risks reversing decades of progress in inclusive education and civil rights. Education transcends partisan divides—it’s a fundamental right we must unite to safeguard the programs and services that empower our students to thrive.”
“At my small school of about five hundred students, the Department of Education supports Title I programming for low-income, high-risk students. And so, at my school, that is three General Ed classrooms out of my twenty-five General Ed. It provides two preschool programs for our low-income community. It provides two resource units, two resource aids, a primary autism classroom and aide. I have a self-contained FLS classroom which is the life skills classroom for students that are medically fragile: on feeding tubes, hearing impaired, vision impaired,” said Ronnow Elementary School Principal and State Senator Dr. Michelee Cruz-Crawford. “And so, when I hear people say, ‘they're just going to shift the money,’ well we receive about $1.5 billion dollars in funding from the Department of Ed. And if you look at the history of what the Department of Ed does and why it was implemented, it was implemented to set a standard. And there is a standard across the board that grew out of our civil rights movement to make sure that all of our students are protected regardless of ability level, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity.”
"When we cut resources to education, we're not just trimming a budget, we're eliminating opportunities for these students in Nevada, where our schools already face significant challenges," said Educate Nevada Now Executive Director Amanda Morgan. "Slashing the US Department of Education directly undercuts this progress. Federal programs like Title One, which sports low-income students, and IDEA, which supports students with disabilities, are lifelines."
Before coming to Congress, Lee spent two decades leading education non-profits – reducing dropout rates and making sure our kids had the wrap-around services they needed to thrive.
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