Local opinion: Ciscomani's deafening silence on Department of Education

On March 20, President Trump held a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Posing alongside newly sworn-in Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Trump boasted that his recently signed executive order would allow McMahon to close the Department of Education “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by the law.”

Let’s get clear on what this means in practice.

While White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that “critical programs” such as Title I, student loans, and funding allocated for those with disabilities would remain unaffected, this claim is suspect for several reasons. First, this essential funding requires personnel to be allocated appropriately. It would be next to impossible to drastically overhaul the agency without reducing personnel to levels that would render it unable to distribute funds properly. Second, conservatives have long dreamed of dismantling the department and transferring its portfolio to other agencies. Agencies under which it would have less oversight and, crucially, a different type of oversight.

Representative Dan Houzer (R-NC) proposed legislation in January that would transfer student loans to Treasury and job training programs to labor. It would also give the federal government authority to allocate almost all of its education budget to states with virtually no safeguards in place.

Why would this lack of oversight be a priority for the GOP?

Because they want to use federal funds (contributed to by all Americans) to support a radical education agenda. An agenda supported by far fewer than all Americans. And an agenda that would ostensibly allow states to pour federal money into private schools if they so choose. Notably and significantly, private schools are not required to follow federal civil rights laws. They, thus, are exempt from federal law barring discrimination based on race, gender, or disability. Given that the federal government provides 13% of the funding for special needs individuals, a nightmarish scenario is not difficult to imagine.

These dangerous and unprecedented actions by the Trump administration deserve a forceful rebuke. U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s silence is deafening.

I hope Congressman Ciscomani will speak up soon. But if we use past actions to predict the future, I wouldn’t be optimistic. Let’s examine a recent case study.

During the recent budget negotiations, Ciscomani cosigned a letter with six other House Republicans expressing concern over the depth of the new budget’s cuts to the Pell Grant System, Medicaid, and SNAP. Ciscomani, self-admittedly a benefit of a Pell Grant, then went on to vote for that very budget. When asked days later about his vote, he attempted to rationalize it, claiming that he could modify these cuts through the reconciliation process. I’ll watch the reconciliation process closely, but my gut tells me Pell Grants will get slashed, and Ciscomani will be silent. Silent while the future of Arizona’s kids, some of whom will undoubtedly need a Pell Grant like he did, hangs in the balance.