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Steve Connolly is the executive director of The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing/Governor Baxter School for the Deaf.
I write this with equal parts outrage and disbelief, because apparently we have reached a moment in which it is acceptable — no, commendable — to decide that children who are DeafBlind, or who have other serious disabilities, are simply optional. The Trump administration’s decision to withhold funding for special education grants affecting DeafBlind students in eight states is not merely misguided, I believe it is morally bankrupt, educationally disastrous, and legally dubious.
Let’s get the facts straight, since apparently some folks in power need reminding:
IDEA Part D grants aren’t luxuries. They fund the very training, research, and parent-resource centers that make education possible for students with disabilities, including those who are both Deaf and Blind.
The administration’s cuts rip directly into four of the nation’s 49 DeafBlind technical-assistance centers — lifelines for roughly 1,000 children across eight states. These are not “nice-to-haves.” These centers are the difference between isolation and connection, between silence and communication, between being left behind and being given a chance to learn.
The cuts gut parent resource centers, training hubs, and programs that equip educators to reach children with both severe hearing and vision loss — programs families rely on to keep their kids connected to the world. Even before any funding cuts, families were already scrambling, often going months without any qualified interpreter, because the few that exist are spread thin, overbooked, or unavailable in rural areas.
By slashing this funding, the government isn’t just trimming a budget line, it’s pulling the rug out from under families who already fight every single day for their children to be seen, heard, and valued. It’s leaving educators without the training they need. It’s telling parents to fend for themselves. And most tragically, it’s telling children — some of America’s most vulnerable children — that their futures simply don’t matter.
Since the Trump administration apparently seems to believe these children are just a line item on a budget spreadsheet, here’s a challenge directly to them: Visit one of these DeafBlind technical assistance centers to see who you are scapegoating. Place your hand over theirs and try to explain why their right to communicate, learn, and grow isn’t worth the money. See firsthand the teachers scrambling for resources, the parents exhausted from filling the gaps, the children cut off from the world because of Washington’s cruelty. Perhaps then the human reality would matter more than the political theater. Or (rhetorical thinking) families may want to ask them: If this was their child, would you be making the same decision?
Please help advocate for immediate action from Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Angus King, Rep. Jared Golden and Rep. Chellie Pingree right away.
The window of opportunity to appeal this decision closes quickly — on Sept. 19. Please act now!
Let’s only accept better from the Oval Office — demand that the Trump administration stop scanning tens of thousands of documents in search of “DEI-related terms” as a proxy for thinking through the impact of their decisions. Children are victims of this DEI purge. DeafBlind children deserve an equitable education. (There’s one of those buzz words!)
In short, reversing this decision is not optional — it is imperative. The strength of a society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable. Withholding funds intended to help DeafBlind students is not tough leadership; I believe it’s cowardice masquerading as policy.
We must demand better. Because if we don’t stand up for these kids, who will? No one’s political party is more important than these children. On this topic, we can all be bipartisan!