OPINION: A letter to North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle federal education programs, the North Carolina parent of a child with a disability urges Sen. Thom Tillis to step up.

[Editor’s Note: In recent weeks, President Trump and K-12 leaders in his administration have been discussing eliminating the federal Department of Education. That could have significant impacts for our state schools, and the federal protections offered to vulnerable children. The following is a letter from a North Carolina parent of a child with a disability to North Carolina’s Sen. Thom Tillis.]

Dear Senator Thom Tillis,

No child should ever be considered government waste. Our children deserve the power and priority of our federal government. The federal Department of Education oversees the rights and opportunities of some of our most vulnerable children including students like my son.

My son is one of the more than 202,000 North Carolina students that benefit from the Individuals with Disability Education Act or IDEA. I assure you no one is handing Individual Education Plans out like candy and certainly not the resources and services to go with that plan.  

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It is in fact, the Office of Civil Rights at the federal level that we rely on to make sure that our children have what they need to attend school.  

I shouldn’t be begging for the bare minimum of our leaders to just keep the Department of Education open. I should be asking for enough resources and services so our kids not only attend public school, but thrive there too.

No child should ever be considered government waste.

The message parents are receiving is that services will be simply reorganized into other existing federal departments. We’re told block grants will be given to our states.   

If our federal government doesn’t prioritize the lives of students then who will? Who is there to monitor our state? Who will monitor that our most vulnerable won’t be lost in the shuffle?  

Will those block grants just get absorbed into a state general fund like we’ve seen with the so-called Education Lottery or put into a voucher program that doesn’t fit the needs of my child?  

Private schools don’t serve the needs of every child. They’re not in all our rural and poor neighborhoods.  We need a robust public school system and a strong federal presence making sure our children are protected from harm.

In 2018, Mr. Tillis, you received the Congressional Voice for Children Award from National PTA.  The award highlighted your work in securing grants for Statewide Family Engagement Centers.  

This money helped schools better engage with families from marginalized communities using existing evidence-based practices to improve student outcomes.  

Mr. Tillis, do you still believe in public schools as a public good as you once did as PTA parent?  

My son relies on special education services.  We receive transportation assistance, and a quality one-on-one assistant. My son has had occupational therapy, speech therapy, and a number of interventions. No one should have to worry that these resources won’t be there. 

For parents of students with disabilities, just understand we’re like every other parent out there, but our worries are deeper and with good reason. 

This world wasn’t built for my son, but with accommodations there is hope.  Don’t let him fall through the cracks. Give me hope. Promises are not good enough. 

We need to see action from your office that ensures not only the safety of our funds but the priority of our children’s rights. No child is government waste, every child is an asset to our society.

Susan Book, North Carolina parent