Andrew Lessman
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atlessman.bsky.social
Andrew Lessman
@atlessman.bsky.social
Teacher at heart, attorney, higher education regulation, ADA compliance and inclusive design
Pinned
I may have lost almost all faith in adults, but I will never give up on kids.
This administration constantly makes clear how little regard it has for vulnerable communities, especially those whom there has been a bipartisan desire to help.

As always, cruelty is the point.

www.npr.org/2025/10/13/n...
Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education
Multiple sources tell NPR that, as part of the Trump administration's latest reduction-in-force, the U.S. Department of Education has gutted the office that handles special education.
www.npr.org
October 13, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
Nothing says “land of the free” like armed agents of the state saying “show me your papers if you want your daughter back” bsky.app/profile/nbcb...
September 23, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
ICE is sweeping up people with disabilities now, making no accommodations for them.

www.latimes.com/california/s...
Deaf, mute and terrified: ICE arrests DACA recipient and ships him to Texas
Javier Diaz Santana, who is deaf and mute, was swept up in a federal immigration raid at his job in Temple City, unable to communicate in handcuffs. His attorney says U.S. agents "don’t care whether y...
www.latimes.com
July 22, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Trump: "The plan is to act like I wanted to attack Iran all along, bomb the shit out of them, then declare a ceasefire. I'm sure Iran won't just use that as an opportunity to launch a barrage against a now temporarily hesitant Israel. That way I still get my Nobel Peace Prize!"
June 24, 2025 at 3:58 AM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
according to conservatives on the court, the constitution does not protect your right to your own body but does enable the government to ship you off to a foreign gulag without any hope of return
NEW: The Supreme Court's conservatives halt a preliminary injunction that had restricted the Trump administration's ability to rapidly deport migrants to "third countries" where they have never lived and where allegedly face torture. All three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
June 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Some additional context on the "A1" statement.

Might well have been referring to this particular AI vendor.

Teacher's unions might actually have preferred this to be a straight gaffe.

finance.yahoo.com/news/secreta...
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Congressman Byron Donalds of Florida Visits FuturEdge Charter Academy and Future Home of Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy of Nevada, Spotlights AI-Powered Lea...
Alpha 1 (A1) AI Tutor Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy LAS VEGAS, NEVADA / ACCESS Newswire / April 18, 2025 /Secretary of Education Linda McMahon Visits FuturEdge Charter Academy and Future Home of P...
finance.yahoo.com
April 22, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Yikes. Seems they no longer want to be constrained by ethical obligations.
Policy goes into effect April 30
April 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Whenever this administration claims to be powerless to do something, we need to push back.

They claim power over every area of our lives, but that they do not have the power to correct their own abuses.
#ICYMI: I wrote about the White House's scary claim that federal courts are powerless to order the government to bring back individuals who have been unlawfully removed from the United States, and the judicial decisions pointing entirely in the other direction:

www.stevevladeck.com/p/138-abrego...
138. Abrego Garcia, Constructive Custody, and Federal Judicial Power
Federal courts don't have jurisdiction over foreign prisons. That doesn't mean that they're powerless when the U.S. government wrongly removes someone from the United States.
www.stevevladeck.com
April 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
We must immediately close our buggy-whip gap!
April 3, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Moving these functions under RFK's supervision would be an unforgivable travesty.

www.npr.org/2025/04/03/n...
How the Education Department helps students with disabilities get an education
Special education laws and the U.S. Department of Education have evolved together over nearly five decades. Now, the Trump administration seems to want to separate the two.
www.npr.org
April 3, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
Dead people telling the President to pursue a trade war with an uninhabited island is real George III territory
April 2, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Without due process protections, anyone could be next.
April 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Solid advice, but no one can quite predict how this SCOTUS will view the constitutionality of a President's authority over Executive agencies.

They have been teeing up an expansion on this front for a while.

Approving this switchover is very possible.

www.fastcompany.com/91306787/wha...
Here's what happens to your student loan if the Department of Education disappears
If the Trump administration moves student loans to the Small Business Administration, where does that leave borrowers?
www.fastcompany.com
March 29, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
Ghost gun companies were their own worst enemies in this case. They pretended they weren't selling firearms, but EVERYTHING about their marketing conveyed the fact that you could easily turn their kits into functioning guns. Gorsuch really nails that here. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
March 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
Today's decision is a pretty major smackdown for the 5th Circuit, which angrily rejected the ghost gun regulations as an egregiously unlawful assault on the rights of at-home gunsmiths. Gorsuch's opinion says the 5th Circuit badly misapplied the law in a number of ways. When you've lost Gorsuch...
March 26, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Redirecting these functions is unconstitutional without action from Congress as these are precisely the statutorily required functions McMahon stated the department would continue to oversee.

www.npr.org/2025/03/21/n...
Trump says Education Department will no longer oversee student loans, 'special needs'
The president said federal student loans would move to the Small Business Administration, and hinted that the Department of Health and Human Services would take over special education oversight.
www.npr.org
March 21, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Everyone tries to keep their head down, not notice the abuses and desperately prays they are not next.

Once enough people start thinking that way, the culture shifts to ratting out your neighbors and colleagues in order to stay in the State's "good graces."

All while the fascists entrench deeper.
The touchstone of most authoritarian regimes is not the kind of total control that most people feel in their day-to-day lives. It is that the regime is only selectively bound by law, producing constant low-grade anxiety as to whether, how, or against whom power will be exercised.
March 18, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Highlighting the need for and benefits of education data investment:

www.npr.org/2025/03/17/n...
How Alabama students went from last place to rising stars in math
Alabama is the only state where 4th-grade math scores are higher now than they were in 2019, before the pandemic. This is the story of how the state pulled it off.
www.npr.org
March 17, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Andrew Lessman
This piece rightly focuses on the data function within the civil rights office. MAGA does not want us to have good education data as they deconstruct public schools and redirect tax dollars to private, mostly religious schools with little transparency. There would be evidence of the harm they cause.
The Education Department's 50% workforce cut includes major reductions to the Office for Civil Rights. Education professors explain why these changes will likely have a lasting impact on the most vulnerable public school students. buff.ly/pFrNW5N #CivilRights
Big cuts at the Education Department’s civil rights office will affect vulnerable students for years to come
The layoffs further complicate staffing shortages at the Office for Civil Rights, which plays a vital role in promoting a fair education for public school students.
buff.ly
March 17, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Many accreditors and states require online program students to have the same level of access to university services as face-to-face students, and that the programs be of similar rigor.

These pressures, along with profit, help explain the equivalence in price.

www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n...
As enrollment in online college grows, students wonder: Why does it cost more?
Rather than lowering the price, some universities use online courses to subsidize everything else.
www.npr.org
March 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM
March 14, 2025 at 7:34 PM
No one, not state governments, not teachers, not parents, nor students, will benefit from crippling our ability to collect and analyze education data.

These functions are required by law.

What is the replacement?

www.edweek.org/policy-polit...
The Threat to Federal School Data Is a Threat to Us All (Opinion)
The erosion of this fundamental information will create immediate blind spots for districts and states.
www.edweek.org
March 13, 2025 at 8:48 PM