Cory Turner
Appearances
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The WWE vs. the American education system
And this is – Linda's not even in power yet. This isn't even Linda yet. This came up in a really fascinating exchange in her Senate confirmation hearing. It sure did. Yeah. You tell that story. Senator Chris Murphy, her home state senator, Connecticut, asked her – My son is in high school.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Under these new Trump administration executive orders, under this new Dear Colleague letter, like, is that against the rules? Could his school be at risk now of losing federal funding?
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The WWE vs. the American education system
One of the things that came out of the confirmation hearing that did remind me a bit of WWE, frankly, is like there is this narrative, this overriding narrative that the department is bad. Right. It is. What was the phrase Reagan used? A bureaucratic boondoggle. Boondoggle.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Right. So that is the narrative. That is the narrative that President Trump is selling. And I assume that is going to be the narrative that Linda McMahon tries to sell. But there's a bit of a shell game happening here because the fact is a lot of people, Democrats and Republicans, both agree that many of the things the Ed Department does are important. And nobody wants to see them stop.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
And so what we're getting instead is this sort of like, let's kill Ed because it's not really. It's abolishing the building. There's the broader narrative, which is driven largely by politics. And as you pointed out, they're very old politics hating on the Ed Department. I just think it's much more useful to ask, OK, what are you really going to try to do here? What is actually feasible here?
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The WWE vs. the American education system
And it is so much more nuanced and interesting than we're closing the department.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
The easiest answer to that question is they hate the way Democrats in particular have used the department as kind of a cudgel to pursue liberal or progressive items on their agenda. I think the best, most recent example is Republicans were really angry with President Biden when
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The WWE vs. the American education system
When he tried to expand protections under federal civil rights law known as Title IX, he tried to expand protections for transgender students. And Republicans saw that as a blatant overreach.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
I think the most important thing to talk about here is the Department of Education manages two enormous and enormously important pots of money that go to our public schools. One helps pay for special education through a federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
The same is true of another funding pot called Title I. So this money goes specifically to schools all over the country, not just big city schools, but lots of schools. One streetlight rural towns where, you know, because we fund our schools primarily through state and local property taxes, these schools are just at a financial disadvantage. They just are.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
And so Title I is the federal government's response to that imbalance. And there's no difference between a school in a high poverty urban district and a high poverty rural Alabama district, which is actually where I am right now, Brittany. They both get Title I money. And so what do Republicans love or at least appreciate value about the department? It is that money.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
There's one moment that comes to mind, which is actually the first question she got in the hearing from a Republican. It was the Republican chairman of the committee, Bill Cassidy from Louisiana. Thank you very much. I shall begin.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
This is a question about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is the law that protects students with disabilities and guarantees them. You know, there is no federal right, Brittany, for all children in the U.S. to get an education.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Education is not in the Constitution. The only federal right to an education... is afforded to kids with disabilities through the IDEA. Wow. That is so interesting. I did not know that.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Wow. It was not that long ago. IDEA is 50 years old this year when children with disabilities were turned away from public schools. Period. End of story. Gosh. Circling back to your question about Linda McMahon, she was asked a question about helping children with dyslexia. She did not reference IDEA.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
She did not reference any of the protections afforded to children through IDEA. She simply said would need to receive.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
It was actually a fairly generic response.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Which also goes back to one of the most effective ads Trump ran through the whole election cycle was when he said, Kamala Harris is for they, them. They, them, not you. Not you.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Yeah, I mean, it was actually before Trump's inauguration that a judge struck down Biden's expansive protections for transgender students through Title IX. So they weren't actually in place or being enforced when Trump came into office. But Brittany, just to bring us fully to the present, you know, it's not just protections for trans students that
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The WWE vs. the American education system
We see really driving this fight over the role of the Ed Department, what it is, what it should be, what it could be, what it can't be. I mean, we saw just about a week, week and a half ago, the department under the Trump administration issued a dear colleague letter to all K-12 schools and colleges saying, That take federal dollars.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
Yeah, I wouldn't want to do either. I'm just going to bow out of both.
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The WWE vs. the American education system
And this dear colleague letter basically took the Trump administration's position on diversity, equity, inclusion. And sent it to every school in the country and said, you need to get rid of anything that has the slightest ring of DEI. Because if you don't, we will cut your federal funding.