Jason Cherkis of the Huffington Post reports that Jeff Sessions–Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General of the United States–took to the Senate floor to denounce special education for students with disabilities.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general, once complained about a law that helped mainstream children with disabilities into public school systems.
In May 2000, Sessions took to the senate floor to make a lengthy speech on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, arguing that federal protections for students with disabilities was a reason U.S. public schools were failing.
“We have created a complex system of federal regulations and laws that have created lawsuit after lawsuit, special treatment for certain children, and that are a big factor in accelerating the decline in civility and discipline in classrooms all over America. I say that very sincerely,” Sessions said.
Sessions’ full statement, which can still be found on his website, is another in a series of inflammatory takes on widely accepted social policy that could complicate his nomination for the top law enforcement position in the country. The Alabama Republican once claimed that virtually no one immigrating to the United States from the Dominican Republic added value to society.
Open the article to read the links, including one to his full speech.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Special education didn’t exist when I was a child k-12. I wasn’t learning and was held back in 1st grade for another year. When was 7, some expert administrator (tongue in cheek) tested me and told my mother I was retarded and said I’d never learn to read or write.
My mother cried on the drive home. My parents were high school drop outs but they were both avid readers.
The next day my mother went to my 1st grade teacher (the real expert) and asked for advice on how to teach me to read. The teacher told her what to do at home and my mother did it (my mother added her own touch, and never told me teacher, with a wire coat hanger to motivate me). By 10, I was an avid reader. By the time I barely graduated from high school with a 0.95 GPA, I had read thousands of books, sometime two a day. Two of my favorite places are libraries and book stores.
What will happen to children like I was, if they don’t have special education classes when they don’t have a mother like mine to step in at home and make the difference?
I suspect that most mothers (and parents) with children like I was just get angry and blame the public schools and public teachers, demand school choice and then run to someone like Eva Moskowitz, who will bully and abuse their child, and then the parents don’t have to do anything at home to teach their child to read that might rob the adults of the time they spend watching reality TV, like The Apprentice.
LikeLike
Psychologists have become better equipped today at diagnosing learning issues in children.(I prefer not to call them learning disabilities) There are many avenues and strategies to unlock education today for all students that were not available in the past. Technology does play a part in assisting many students with learning issues. I am not referring to personalized learning. I am talking about apps that help to unlock curriculum, assistive technology, ereaders that have speech to text, databases that translate in different languages. Teachers are better equipped today to modify curriculum so that all students can learn. Some students with learning issues also have behavioral issues. Inclusion in regular education for every special needs student is not always the best placement for the child.
Some students still preform best in self-contained classrooms because of learning and behavioral issues. LRE doesn’t always mean a regular education placement. Instead of dismantling special education which has benefitted so many successful students, perhaps we should be reevaluating Least Restrictive Environment. I still believe Reform is a backdoor avenue to eliminate special education and this post just reaffirms my belief
LikeLike
Albert Einstein had a learning disability. He wasn’t alone but how many Einsteins slipped through the cracks without help from special education programs?
http://www.myspecialneeds.ie/blog/index.php/albert-einstein-had-a-learning-disability/
LikeLike
Trained professional teachers know how to modify instruction and tailor it to the varying needs of different learners. In the one size fits all world of many non-public schools, many of those untrained staff members or computer programs will be unable to adapt to the needs of those the are different. It is much easier for them to toss those types of learners out of the school, and select the next easy to teach student.
LikeLike
Excellent post, Mr. Lofthouse. As a young Gen Xer growing up in a single-parent household (my mom was also a teacher), my largely latch-key upbringing was immersed in watching tons and tons of movies (GOOD ones from the 70s and early 80s) and the first Nintendo gaming system. I rarely and barely read any books. I did terrible on my SATs, barely got into a state school, but excelled there and graduated with honors. It wasn’t until I was living in NYC at 22 with nothing to do on the hour-long commute to midtown that I started reading regularly, voraciously. And my life exploded so expansively, I kept asking “What have I been missing out on all my life?”–at 22. Today, 20 years and two graduate degrees later (English, Film Studies), I’m considered a successful high school teacher by my colleagues and peers—30 years after my mom was told right to her face by various types involved with trying to “fix” what was wrong with me (like yourself, with me in tow at these encounters), that I had a very limited future ahead of me. The actual words spoken were much harsher. However, what your post tapped into on my end was the need to make sure kids are reading as much as they can in my classroom, that the power of self-discovered literacy is a wholly liberating and empowering experience in the face of such ridiculous, faux diagnoses.
LikeLike
No child should be labeled by a so-called expert, and then tossed aside.
LikeLike
I am no fan of sessions, but…
Sessions does not seem be objecting to providing federal assistance to students with various disabilities, but with the way that special education and the disabilities act is applied to students with behavior problems. Yes, I know that some students “act out” because they have legitimate cognitive challenges that make it difficult for them to engage in instructional content. However, the thrust of his speech: http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/floor-statements?ID=a7977b1d-7e9c-9af9-753e-8f3a8b3b43fb, is concerned with what he regards as a misuse of the law as it relates to students behavior and expectations.
Though he states clearly that he does not want to get rid of support for children with disabilities, maybe he is lying and actually wants to defund this and many other “safety net ” federal programs. I don’t know… but the concerns he raises around the impact of behavior in the classroom is on point. I personally spend way too much instructional time in the classroom addressing behavior, and know that the worst behaved students have way too much impact on class and school school tone and culture. This is the single biggest challenge I experience as a teacher, and as far as I can tell is what sessions is talking about.
LikeLike
Jonathan said, “I personally spend way too much instructional time in the classroom addressing behavior, and know that the worst behaved students have way too much impact on class and school school tone and culture.”
I’ve been retired from the classroom since 2005, but that is exactly how I remembered it. You never knew who was going to walk through that classroom door everyday who would destroy the learning environment. Most teachers who quit in the first few years, and never return to education, quit for this very reason.
Teachers find ways to teach even with budget cuts and no textbooks, but dealing with disruptions that sabotage learning in a classroom is the real challenge. Teachers that do not learn how to deal with this one usually leave or burn out and once they burn out, if they don’t leave, they often end up with that “incompetent” label. There are many great teachers who were destroyed because they couldn’t manage the never ending challenges that so easily turned a classroom upside down.
LikeLike
Lloyd,
Yes, I, too, have seen many well intentioned, efficacious new teachers with all the energy and enthusiasm in the world, get completely wiped out by students whose behavior has absolutely no place in a classroom. While many of these students are identified as having some form of “disability”, many don’t. While I, as a veteran teacher, have learned many strategies to moderate and manage these students, they remain the single biggest challenge to my teaching. And while I know that this experience is hardly unique, two decades of school reform has offered nothing, except zero tolerance charters schools, to address this elephant in the living room.
Jeff Sessions, (speaking in 2000) attributes this to the misuse of the federal disabilities act, and while I’m not sure what solutions he has to offer, I find myself in agreement with the gist of his statement.
Heres his closing paragraph:
“I think these teachers make a point. It is a matter we need to give careful consideration to, not overreact, not undermine the great principles of the Disabilities Act Program. But at the same time, we need to say that a child is not allowed to commit crimes, to disrupt classroom, to curse teachers, principals and students, and abuse them and do so with impunity. ”
What do you think?
LikeLike
My first thought is not to not trust Donald Trump, his cabinet, or his White House staff. Words don’t count. Actions do. We’ll have to wait for the actions. Heck, tRump is only the unofficial president elect, but I don’t think he knows that. Trumps current actions indicate he thinks the country belongs to him now.
LikeLike
Lloyd: mark my words, we’re going to see a HUGE resurgence of virtual learning companies, especially K12–THAT’s what’s going to happen to children like you were, who don’t have a mother like yours.
Those K12 commercials are still on–they’re aired very late at night/early morning, to adults drugged by TV, who will see this as an easy solution–hey, no getting kids to school, filling out tons of paperwork, and–it’s virtually free! AND–“a former principal” (who, of course, was paid $$$$) recommends K12!!
The end result will be to doubly disable these children; instead of educating them, they will be–like so many “other people’s children”–our future minimum (VERY minimum) wage worker drones.
Plus–we will have triple the childhood obesity rates (no P.E., no recess, no school lunches or breakfasts).
LikeLike
I fear anyone that disagrees with Trump and his merry band of deplorables will be labeled “un-American.” This will be the new normal for the next four years. Those that oppose the seriously flawed policies of the new administration must join together and collectively resist the greed and ignorance will they will try to impose on us.
LikeLike
Voices on the far right calling to mainstream all special needs children (saving big money in the process, special education being one of the most expensive arms of a true public education) have been getting louder over the past decade; many have dismissed these voices to our current peril.
LikeLike
&, ciedie, just take a look at the ESSA (not only far right, but DINOs, too)–the Goldman-Sachs funded “Pay for Success,” which rewards early childhood programs for “successful” kids; i.e., those who “do well” on “tests” (Pear$on created-?), & do not qualify–congratulations!–for special education.
Eventually, there will be no special ed. population in the U.S.
$ucce$$ (Eva $tyle)!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III – one southern senator named after two Confederate Civil War generals.
LikeLike
Is it too late to get some learning assistance for Jeff Sessions ? He could surely use some.
LikeLike
I would like to congratulate all on this thread of response for their avoidance of political name calling in favor of some tough issues.
First, Lloyd gets my award for keeping his head in the game. I have often complained that teachers forget what really happened in the classroom twenty minutes after they leave for the day( how else would they continue to return). Way to go. You nailed a multitude of issues.
Always Learning gets an award for saying a lot and getting me to agree with all of it, a rare feat.
Yosarian wins the award for reminding me not to,write,off my kids by letting myself despair about them.
Jonathan get an award for actually reading Session’s speech, something did not do.
I would like to add that I have had some trouble agreeing with the way special education allows students to stay in classrooms where they are not deriving benefit and where they are inhibit to the learning of others. Part of the dynamic of this phenomenon is the administrator who has few options, and who,is unwilling to,act on the few that are there.
We need to fund alternative school, real alternatives, not just places to put disciplinary problems. Some kids need to talk to learn. For them the group thing works well, but they often forget what the point is while they talk to their group. Some kids need absolute silence in the classroom. Some kids need a reduction in the amount of visual stimulus. Others thrive on walls filled with info. Our groupings of children within the school needs to take this into account. We must have classes that are active by design, and classes that are quieter. We must have classes that have homework and classes that realize that some kids will not do homework at home. We must have students who use computers and students who use pencils and chalk. The key here is funding.
Jeff Sessions would probably be in favor of the old way of doing things. We used to regularly counsel students out of high school or allow them to leave because they were unproductive. We had very little choice. That was what was funded. There was no vision beyond that in the community. In a way that might have been the right way. Why must we try when trying is not working.
But I would be in favor of really funding programs that work for kids. We just have to,sell this to the taxpayer, preferably without fake news.
LikeLike
Please forgive the grammatical crimes above. My pad corrects my language in strange and unexpected ways
LikeLike
Thank you, Roy. It’s hard to forget what it was like to teach in a public school. In fact, after 20 years of teaching, I documented what was going on by keeping a detailed daily journal for an entire school year, and made sure to write every entry on the same day before I slept and forgot some of the details.
About 20 years after writing that daily journal, I turned it into a memoir that went on to earn a number of literary awards. For instance, picking up 1st place in Biography/Autobiography at the 2015 San Francisco Book Festival that was held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco.
“His portrayal of life in the class room is stunning, realistic, and even a little scary. You really get the feeling your are that little fly on the wall.” – Dr. William L. Smith, Professor Emeritus status, Emporia State University
An eye-opening look into a tough high school classroom. … made for some good reading. Any teacher can quickly identify with Mr. Lofthouse’s daily battles.” – 2015 Benjamin Franklin Awards
“Public school teachers will relate well to this book, as well other professionals who work with teens in challenging situations. This book is perhaps a strongest fit with college students who are interested in the teaching profession; it gives a sense of the challenges ahead and how to face them.” – Judge, 2nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards
LikeLike