Special education isn't a "nice thing to have." It isn't "charity" or doing something to make us feel better. It is a right. The right to a Free Appropriate Public Education is codified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed by a Republican president.

Happy Indigenous People's Day

The end of federal enforcement of special ed laws. Some states - including MN - will likely be ok. But a lot of disabled kids in a lot of states are going to lose the education that federal law and decades of jurisprudence say they are owed.

If you work in the Office of Special Education for the Department of Education and have been RIF'ed or if you work in a school that has been notified about it, please message me. My Signal is emgarcia.85. I'll protect your identity.

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

Right-wing groups are increasingly requesting copies of syllabi and course materials to assess what's being taught in college classrooms. Universities like UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro are having to decide what to turn over, and what faculty can still control.

www.wunc.org/education/20...

“Raleigh-Durham” (referred to as one city)

I have a full day today, but I woke up early to put this edition of my newsletter together because I need you all to have this rundown of what we've been up against this week in Chicago as the federal assault on our city continues. To ignore these developments would be a damning mistake for us all.

We need a bigger national spotlight on this building raid, fam. Agents dropped from helicopters onto the roof. Citizens and non-citizens alike were dragged from their homes in the night. People who weren't kidnapped during the raid had their belongings seized after the fact. This is madness.

It makes me so fucking mad that there was a right wing conspiracy theory that Biden’s FEMA was denying funds to North Carolina and then Trump gets into office and actually does it and…mostly silence.

Speaking of voices under attack…can we be just as loud about Black journalists and comedians who are silenced, even by our so-called liberal outlets.

• Joy Reid
• Don Lemon
• Melissa Harris-Perry
• Tiffany Cross
• Jemele Hill
• Marc Lamont Hill
• Karen Attiah
• Amber Ruffin

While we brace ourselves for today’s expected pseudo-scientific, ableist nonsense, let’s try to remember that:

1) Autism is not an illness.
2) Autism is not a disorder.
3) Disability is not inherently tragic (though its cause, e.g., being a victim of violence, might be for some).

If you're upset about Jimmy Kimmel being "canceled," I'm sure you were just as furious when you heard about Joy Reid
and Tiffany Cross
or Amber Ruffin
or Karen Attiah
or Jemele Hill

Because Kimmel might still have a job if you were

Alexa Heinrich's Accessible Social is a free resource for digital marketers, communication professionals, content creators, everyday social media users, and anyone who wants to learn how to make their content accessible for people with disabilities.

www.accessible-social.com

A white man killed another white man, but Black people are catching death threats.
So, instead of talking about white feelings again, I explored my own death threats, and tips for others who are unused to white America.
My latest in @thenation.com
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Live every week like it’s fat bear week.

JD Vance: “Charlie Kirk never said Black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. He never uttered those words.”

Charlie Kirk: “Joy Reid, Michelle Obama, Ketanji Brown Jackson — you do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken seriously.”

Pilsen & La Villita (Little Village) are two of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Chicago. I was lucky to spend a lot of time there working with teachers a few years ago.

Me rompe el corazón a ver esto…
🇲🇽 🦅

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/u...

The Dept. of Education has pulled funding for programs in 8 states that support students with both hearing and vision loss.

A staffer at one program says he was told the Trump admin. took issue with 2 words on the grant application: “transition" and “privilege": www.propublica.org/article/trum...

The Supreme Court is forging an America where weighing race can be used to harm minorities, but not to protect them.

Once again, I'm struck by the fact that the one thing all these shooters have in common is, uh, the guns?

i’m not going to be lectured about political violence by people whose politics is violence

“Continue his work”?!? When did Kirk ever say literally *anything* in “good faith”??

This garbage should be immediately disqualifying to anyone supporting Newsom for a Dem primary. Just crazy talk.

The President of the United States just essentially declared a war on Chicago because — wait for it! — Black and Brown people live here.

This is not normal. This is not okay. And we are going to fucking fight back.