Advocates fear for future of special education programs funded by US government
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Special education programs in Knox County Schools may be impacted by the recent executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education.
While the department has sustained cuts in staff and funding, advocates for special education programs are left questioning what this means for Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, that were funded by the department.
While IEPs are protected under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, the Department of Education was responsible for overseeing, monitoring, and providing funding to schools for them. Knox County Schools told 6 News their commitment to serving students with IEPs remains the same, advocates for the program say they are concerned for its future under the federal government.
End of USDA funding for fresh local produce hits Grainger County Schools
'We have an obligation to make sure that students have IEPs, that their IEPs are being followed, and we also have an obligation to make sure that the state and federal government are funding those programs and providing what they, by law, are required to provide to us,' said Knox County Board of Education member Katherine Bike.
Bike said if federal funding for special education programs were to be reduced or taken away, the school district would not be able to financially support them on their own.
'With student supports and interventions, those cost money,' she said. 'Knox County alone cannot afford to pay those. They are hundreds of thousands of dollars and when you put it all together with students, it's millions of dollars.'
According to Knox County Schools, 9,000 students benefit from some form of special education support each year. As a parent of two of those students, Cortney Piper, who is also a political contributor to WATE, said she is worried for her children's future.
'The uncertainty is almost crippling and it is very scary,' said Piper.
US agency targeted for elimination provided vital funding to Beck Center, Zoo Knoxville
Piper said two of her children benefit from IEPs and may not have gotten to where they are today in the classroom without them.
'I have seen an incredible, incredible progress, particularly with my son from kindergarten to where he is in second grade,' she said. 'Because he is receiving those supports and services, I've been able to see him progress in Knox County Schools. So, in addition to providing those academic support, those individualized education programs also provide support that helps children learn how to learn.'
While the future of IEPs remains uncertain, Piper and board member Bike are urging the community to advocate for the program.
'I think it is important for everyone. Not just saying, 'well, the school will take a take care of it,' or, 'well, a school board member will take care of it.' But we really have to be diligent. Everyone has to be diligent in making sure that the standards are kept where they're at,' said Bike.
▶ See more top stories on WATE.com
In 2023 the Knox County Schools Board of Education passed a resolution to make KCS a model district for excellence in special education. Bikes told 6 News IEPs play a large role in making that happen, and she has prepared another resolution to be heard this April outlining what they are committed to do under state and federal law.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
10 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Now that Musk has turned his chainsaw on Trump, what happens to all the government data he accessed?
For anyone who's seen the quintessential slasher classic 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' the destructive power of a man wielding a chainsaw is the indisputable stuff of nightmares. But the same could easily be said about this year's remake featuring Elon Musk, where the dancing chainsaw slasher reenacted, for Conservative Political Action Conference theatergoers, a scene eerily reminiscent of the original. I'm thinking, specifically, of that unforgettable final scene, where Leatherface fades to black swinging his gas-powered murder weapon wildly through the air as he helplessly watches his last potential victim make her last-minute daring escape, dangling from the back of a stranger's pickup truck. Social Security? Gutted. Veterans programs? Gutted. Alzheimer's, cancer and climate research? Gutted. School lunches, Head Start, the entire Department of Education? All gutted. Air safety, food safety, consumer protections? Gutted. Gutted. Gutted. Museums, libraries, hospitals, childcare? You get the drift. And what about all those thousands of federal workers whose jobs were cut? It'll take us years to recover from these self-inflicted wounds. Not to mention the generational damage wrought to our standing in the global community by what is possibly Musk's proudest personal achievement: the decimation of America's foreign assistance programs feeding starving children, combating human trafficking, fighting malaria and reducing the transmission of HIV. All summarized, of course, by the heartless tweet: 'We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.' While the long-term consequences of these actions may be difficult to gauge, conservative estimates are measured in the tens of thousands. But now, apparently, our modern-day Leatherface has turned his power tool on the guy who gave him the chainsaw in the first place. Even implying that his former boss was involved in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking conspiracy, and has since conspired to bury the evidence that would expose Trump's connections to Epstein's decades-long criminal activities — sort of hard to put that toothpaste back into the tube, wouldn't you say? At first glance, this appears to have all the makings of an Ultimate Fighting Championship bout, fought in the middle of a monster truck rally. This calls to mind the 1990s Claymation TV show 'Celebrity Deathmatch,' where preposterously paired big-name personalities (Hillary vs. Monica? Prince Charles vs. Prince?) fought to the death. Promises to be one hell of a show! What America may be in danger of losing sight of in the ensuing spectacle is the real threat to our national security posed by the world's richest man, who, until quite recently, enjoyed unfettered access to everything the government knows about you. Never before has the data your federal government collects about every American been consolidated into a single database. It has always, religiously, been 'siloed' into disconnected data systems — some at the Treasury Department, some at the Education Department, some at the Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration, among other agencies — but always carefully stored and guarded by the separate entities collecting the data. The New York Times, for example, recently published a comprehensive story detailing 314 specific personal details your government potentially knows about you. I suggest giving that a read. A week ago, this casual observer would have assumed these two men, Trump and Musk, were acting with a single motive. Assembling the master data that could make possible Trump's ambitions for sweeping dictatorial powers, and for Musk's ambitions. The sheer volume of data, of course, far outstrips anything that social media titans like Mark Zuckerberg or Musk could legally monetize. And, in any event, certainly not the quid pro quo one might expect for a $288 million campaign contribution. Musk seemed, instead, to be carving himself a unique role in a near-future authoritarian oligarchy, as the undisputed Richelieu to Trump's Louis XIII. But, alas, that was not to be. What is to be, is the shocking revelation that a man who just days ago was given the ceremonial key to the White House — and in the weeks prior, the key to just about every federal government data base — has now cut all ties, and who we know talks regularly with Vladimir Putin, with whom he enjoys a reportedly friendly relationship, is now a free agent. Did Musk take the data with him? To me, the answer seems obvious. The way his pot-smoking 'college dropouts' sauntered into agency after rarified government agency, enjoying open access to virtually anything they wanted — and then they were called out by a whistleblower for uploading huge troves of data to an unsecured server. Within minutes, after Russian hackers had apparently been tipped off, they tried to download it using the correct passwords. We are told that in the end, the Russians were unable to access the data. Whether or not that denial is accurate and truthful, however, again, what should be obvious is that Musk's team successfully spirited your personal information from secure government databases to god knows where. That is the reality to which we wake today, and now every day. Let's hope that after those two Claymation figures have beaten the clay out of each other, someone comes up with a plan to clean up the mess they made. Before it's too late. Brett Wagner, now retired, served as professor of national security decision making for the U.S. Naval War College and adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Trump admin asks Supreme Court to lift injunction blocking dismantling of Education Department
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling that is keeping it from restructuring the Department of Education. "That injunction effectively appoints the district court to a Cabinet role and bars the Executive Branch from terminating anyone, even though respondents conceded that some other [reductions in force] would plainly be proper," the SCOTUS filing reads. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court declined to lift a judge's order blocking President Donald Trump from carrying out his executive order that would shut down the department, according to Reuters. In the executive order, which was issued in March, Trump asserted that "closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them." Federal Appeals Court Throws Roadblock At Trump's Education Reform Agenda U.S. District Judge Myong Joun initially blocked the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the DOE in May. The ruling stopped a mass firing at the DOE that was announced in March and ordered the reinstatement of those who have been fired. The DOE quickly rejected Joun's ruling, with Deputy Assistant Secretary of the DOE's Office of Communications and Outreach Madi Biedermann saying, "President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind. This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families. We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis." Read On The Fox News App Trump made it clear that he would seek to restructure and even dismantle the DOE during his second term in office. In fact, when he nominated Education Secretary Linda McMahon, he said her goal should be to "put herself out of a job." The president cited poor performance as one of his reasons for seeking to shut down the DOE. Department Of Education Designates June As 'Title Ix Month' Amid Transgender Athlete Debate The Nation's Report Card, which assesses how American students are performing in various subjects, showed seven out of 10 fourth graders are not proficient readers, which is a worse score than the last report card in 2022. The report card noted that reading scores showed "no significant change" since 1992. The administration has faced both political and legal pushback on its quest to get rid of the department. In February, several Democrats attempted to enter the Department of Education building in D.C., but were blocked by an employee. During the incident in February, Democrats repeatedly slammed the Trump administration and accused it of lacking transparency. Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom contributed to this article source: Trump admin asks Supreme Court to lift injunction blocking dismantling of Education Department
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Scott Jennings Scorched For Calling Questions About Historic Racist Incidents A 'Gotcha'
Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings was slammed online after he recently suggested that Education Secretary Linda McMahon was asked a 'gotcha' question about one of the worst instances of racial violence in American history during a congressional hearing. During a Wednesday segment of CNN's 'News Night with Abby Phillip,' panelists discussed the hearing earlier that day in which McMahon was asked questions about the Trump administration's efforts to ban what it considers to be 'illegal DEI practices' at K-12 public schools. In January, Trump ordered U.S. schools to stop teaching what he views as 'critical race theory.' And in April, the Trump administration ordered K-12 public schools to certify that they are ending diversity, equity and inclusion practices as a condition for receiving federal money. (Federal judges have since paused the administration's directives to withhold federal funds in three separate rulings.) At one point in Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) asked McMahon whether lessons on the Tulsa Race Massacre would be considered 'illegal DEI.' McMahon responded: 'I'd have to get back to you on that.' Lee pressed further, asking McMahon if she knew what the Tulsa Race Massacre was. McMahon, a former pro wrestling executive with a slim record in education policy, refused to give a direct answer. 'I'd like to look into it more and get back to you on it,' McMahon said. The Tulsa Race Massacre is considered to be among the worst racial terror attacks in U.S. history. In 1921, a white mob violently rampaged through the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an area of Black-owned businesses known as Black Wall Street, and burned down and destroyed much of the area, including homes and businesses. It's been estimated that the white armed rioters killed as many as 300 Black residents. McMahon had also evaded Lee's questions surrounding her familiarity with civil rights trailblazer Ruby Bridges, who at 6 years old faced hateful white protesters when she became the first Black student to attend a racially segregated school in Louisiana. Host Abby Phillip said on 'NewsNight' that McMahon's inability to answer questions about U.S. history made her seem unprepared or even 'unqualified' for her position leading the Education Department. But Jennings brushed off the exchange, saying that he only cares about what McMahon is doing to 'close the Department of Education.' 'I don't care how many books she's read, I don't care what answers to gotcha questions she had,' he said. People on X, formerly Twitter, slammed theconservative pundit for calling Lee's questions 'gotcha questions.' 'If you think things like Ruby Bridges and the Tulsa Massacre are 'gotcha questions,' then that is precisely the evidence we need that these things need to be taught in school,' one X user wrote. Jennings' stance exposes 'a dangerous and far too common belief that confronting and acknowledging America's racist past is somehow separate from American history,' said Portia Allen-Kyle, a civil rights attorney and interim executive director at the racial justice organization Color Of Change. 'Black history is American history, and the questions about Ruby Bridges and the Tulsa Race Massacre aren't niche events that no one knows; these are significant political events that changed the trajectory of our country and the course of history,' she said. 'Labeling historic events like the Tulsa Race Massacre or Ruby Bridges' historic integration as 'gotcha questions' is part of a broader neo-segregationist agenda that treats the lived experience of Black people as political provocation.' 'Before they graduated to banning diversity, equity and inclusion, they were banning Black history and AP African American Studies,' Allen-Kyle said. McMahon evading the question was 'intentional' and 'dangerous,' she said, adding: 'This administration is making clear that its vision of America doesn't include an honest account of Black power, resilience or resistance. Calling our history 'illegal DEI' is a smokescreen to justify whitewashing the past.' Allen-Kyle said that McMahon's refusal to directly respond to Lee's questions either showed a lack of honesty or a 'disqualifying level of ignorance' for her job. 'Neither is acceptable from the person in charge of national education policy,' she said. Shaun Harper, a professor of education, business and public policy at the University of Southern California, called out policymakers for being 'largely unfamiliar with the range of ways that Black people have been and continue to be terrorized in America' and said they 'create and enact perceivably colorblind policies that repeatedly fail to respond to that terrorism and the generational trauma and racial disparities that accompany it.' 'A congressional query about a significant catastrophic moment in American history is not a 'gotcha question' for a White House Cabinet member,' Harper said, later adding: 'McMahon seems to believe it is OK for other Americans to be as racially illiterate as she is. It is not OK because it leads to harmful, racially unresponsive policymaking.' Harper, co-author of 2024 book 'The Big Lie About Race in America's Schools (Race and Education),' emphasized that students in the U.S. often learn about certain historical events, such as the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — 'moments that mostly white textbook makers, standardized test makers and educators deem worthy of inclusion in the curriculum,' he said. 'When they sanitize slavery and altogether leave out tragedies like the Tulsa Race Massacre, miseducated students graduate from schools incapable of answering questions about significant moments in our nation's history that pertain to Black Americans,' he said. Allen-Kyle warned that schools censoring Black history — which is American history — will create 'a society incapable of reckoning with its past and unprepared to build a just future.' 'History isn't just what happened — it's often a guiding light to what we're witnessing in the present and how we can use those learnings to build a future that doesn't repeat the same mistakes,' she later continued, before adding: 'Teaching about Tulsa and Ruby Bridges helps students understand the full story of America: the harm caused, the courage shown, the systems still in need of change.' 'Fighting for truthful education is fighting for a future where every child sees their history, their dignity, and their possibility reflected in the classroom,' she said. Education Secretary Linda McMahon Won't Say If She Knows What The Tulsa Race Massacre Is Tulsa's New Black Mayor Proposes $100M Trust To 'Repair' Impact Of 1921 Race Massacre We Work In DEI. Trump's Wild Anti-Diversity Claims Are Spreading Popular Lies.
