Civil rights and special education offices gutted under Trump’s cuts: Is dismantling federal education support a path to reform or regression?

The Trump administration has laid off 466 US Education Department employees, significantly impacting the civil rights and special education offices. Key divisions overseeing protections for disabled students and funding for low-income pupils were gutted, with OSEP seeing a 95% staff reduction. Civil rights oversight has also been weakened. The cuts, described as political retaliation for a government shutdown, raise concerns over the department’s ability to enforce federal education laws, as reported by The New York Times.