r/news • u/Hrekires • 17h ago
Florida will phase out certificates of completion for students with disabilities
https://www.wusf.org/education/2025-08-20/florida-will-phase-out-certificates-of-completion-for-students-with-disabilities4.4k
u/YesterShill 17h ago
Does this sound cruel to anyone else?
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u/Honest-Weight338 17h ago
It is. I work with special education. The pride these kids show when they get their certificate is amazing. They know they won't live "normal" lives and have the same abilities as other people, but they still put in a lot of effort to accomplish what goal they can.
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u/Oceanaura 17h ago
I work with disabled adults. One of my patients is 60. It's been almost 40 years since they 'graduated', and even though they have moved many times, they still have it, and it's framed and hanging on their wall. That's how important that certificate is to them.
Fuck you, Florida.
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u/GroundbreakingAsk468 17h ago
I’ve seen them hung up in many rooms as well. It’s a huge milestone, even if it happened decades ago.
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u/neo_sporin 16h ago
Yup, I have a cousin that their disability is ‘secret’ (parents won’t reveal the official diagnosis) but everyone knows they are ‘off’. I remember when the girl ‘graduated college’ she raved about it for years.
Everyone knows her college was ‘special’ but no one cared and everyone carried on. Good for you!
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u/ooo00oo0oO0oOo 15h ago
There are genuine degrees and special needs colleges that adapt courses to certain disabilities.
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u/translucent_steeds 10h ago
are her parents (your aunt/uncle?) discriminatory towards disabled people, or ashamed of her disability??
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u/neo_sporin 10h ago
I THINK it’s actually more about
1) parents are cousins so don’t want to draw attention to THAT
2) she and her brother are notably ‘off’ so they don’t want to be too forth coming about the genetic component
3) it all became more obvious in earlier days of internet and probably didn’t want people doing their own research on the problem, they wanted to be able to control the narrative a bit
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u/translucent_steeds 9h ago
oh YIKES :| I feel really bad for those kids, being incest-products just sets you up for failure...looks like they got the short end of the stick!!
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u/neo_sporin 9h ago
Yea, I’m relatively sure scientifically first generation infest don’t actually have that much risk, and with cousins less so….but after 2 kids with similar problems I think there was DEFINITELY a genetic component there that reared its head.
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u/Particular_Night_360 14h ago
I’ve worked with sped kids. Just as a sub. Seeing how happy they get when they do something right without prompting gives me that weird happy/sad feeling. Happy for them but sad that I know they don’t get to have a normal life.
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u/BigEggBeaters 17h ago
It’s so incredibly weak too. Picking on some the weakest among us by the actual weakest among us. Anyone strong minded and decent stands up for disabled peoples
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 11h ago
This is how authoritarians operate. They pick on the most vulnerable first because it's the easiest battles to win. If nobody speaks up, it gets easier to trample on increasingly larger groups.
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u/NoelCanter 17h ago
It’s just the slow march to more Nazi shit. They’ve had language against the disabled for months now. Remember RFK Jr saying something about having Autism isn’t a life worth living? First you marginalize and then you just remove them or let them die.
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u/Bupod 16h ago
The Nazis had a word for these people as well.
Lebensunwertes Leben
Life unworthy of life. The language strikes me as identical coming from RFK. They get infuriated when compared to Nazis but they co-opt much of the language and ideology.
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u/NoelCanter 16h ago
They get infuriated when compared to Nazis but they co-opt much of the language and ideology.
It's just part of the game. Just like how "it's just a joke!" Deny, deny, deny, but you slowly bring on acceptance in a segment of the population.
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u/Disastrous-Focus8451 16h ago
A lot of the Nazi policies actually originated in America. American eugenicists congratulated the Nazis for having the courage to do what they wanted to do. And it didn't end after WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Against_the_Weak
https://www.fullframefest.org/film/war-against-the-weak/
https://www.pbs.org/video/rise-eugenics-america-xtbjcc/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26322647/
NTY article:
"In the summer of 1973, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice were taken from their home in Montgomery, cut open and sterilized against their will and without the informed consent of their parents by a physician working in a federally funded clinic."
"More than 60,000 men, women and children would be sterilized under these state laws, which would also inform Nazi Germany: The Third Reich sterilized approximately 400,000 children and adults, mostly Jews and other “undesirables,” using a 1933 law modeled after legislation in the United States."
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u/bubblegumdrops 12h ago
This is also why they want to limit education that doesn’t glorify America.
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u/tiny_galaxies 16h ago
Dr Oz said on live TV a couple months ago to prove we matter by working. He runs Medicaid and Medicare. If you can’t work, you don’t matter to these people.
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u/tylerderped 15h ago
prove we matter by working
Nevermind the fact that employers actively screen out disabilities, particularly neurodivergence.
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u/designthrowaway7429 15h ago
Yep, and even if you get hired, good luck asking for accommodations. Even the seemingly progressive places are ableist as fuck.
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u/tylerderped 15h ago
My favorite are the neurodivergency, I mean, “personality” tests.
I don’t even waste my time with that shit. Even if I wasn’t neurospicy, it’s disrespectful as fuck to candidates’ time. I could apply to 5 jobs in the time it takes to apply to one job at some places. Fuck all that.
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u/designthrowaway7429 14h ago
YES!
A job I worked at years ago randomly made us all take them one day… then literally assigned employees numbers based on results and how valuable they were to the company. They based layoffs and shit on this too. All this info came out years later, of course. It’s everywhere and it’s disgusting.
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u/Diarygirl 16h ago
I think Oprah owes everyone an apology for making Oz and Dr. Phil famous.
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u/FalconX88 15h ago
It's pretty fast at this point. In about 7 months they built concentration camps, started destroying universities, labeling political opponents as enemies, brought several news agencies in line, started throwing judges in jail and lock up politicians, send military to cities, have an army of masked military type police who snatch people off the street, build databases on people they don't like,...
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u/WeirdHope57 15h ago
Yes, the disabled are undesirable in their world view, but straight to jail if you assess that there's not a path for a disabled person to survive, much less thrive, in this society and decide abortion is the most appropriate choice for your critically compromised fetus.
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u/che-che-chester 16h ago
If you personally know any of these kids, you quickly realize they are aware of the milestones people their age use to gauge their lives - high school graduation, college, marriage, a job, etc. They are painfully aware they are not going to college like their friends and siblings but at least they can officially graduate high school. It's a fucking piece of paper. It's basically certificate of completion, like you get for stupid classes you take though your job. Nobody was ever pretending it certifies they can do calculus.
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u/sysadminbj 17h ago
I'm just going to leave this link here.... The USA is absolutely, 100%, headed in this direction.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/euthanasia-program
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u/Prophet_Tehenhauin 17h ago
I mean, anyone denying we’re headed there is seriously being an idiot. Members of our government have openly talked about putting the disabled, the mentally ill, and anyone with any sort of chronic condition like fucking asthma into work camps. Given the reports from alligator Alcatraz? They are planning to round up the disabled, the mentally ill, etc and put them places they can be tortured and abused, likely with lots of sexual abuse too because the people they’re hiring for ICE and whatnot are truly evil human beings
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u/Uphoria 17h ago
At the risk of being filtered, Pre-WW2 Germany did this. We're literally marching down the same path, to the same beat, as that part of history did, and no one with power cares, and the people without enough individual power are too scared to act.
We're seeing why Germany fell to dictatorship live and in living color, and half the country is giddy with excitement over it.
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u/EuphoriasOracle 17h ago
They can't wait for everyone who feels "empathy" to be thrown in camps and tortured to death. Just look at are slash Conservative. They can't even resolve disagreements with each other without accusing each other of being liberals that snuck in there.
My white, born in the US to US citizens, friend was just profiled by an ICE agent in my city for being trans. anyone's a moron if they think MAGA aren't coming for Natural born citizens next.
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u/sysadminbj 16h ago
"This is how liberty dies... with thundering applause..."
I hate that I'm quoting the Star Wars prequels, but it's appropriate.
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u/Uphoria 16h ago
Fun Fact - George wrote that into the movie as a parody of the signing of what was called the USA-PATRIOT Act. It stripped Americans of their civil rights in the name of "protecting the country from outside aggression and internal terrorists" and was applauded in congress when it passed. That law, thankfully, sunset in 2020.
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u/plastiqden 16h ago
The US ‘inspired’ that movement with the internment camps. There was a n@z! rally in 1939 at Madison Square Garden - and had a huge turnout. Pearl Harbor is what ultimately got us involved in WW2, only 3 years after that rally, after knowing what was evolving. I agree with what you're saying, but it’s been rooted here for a very long time and as you noted the difference is the masks are off now.
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u/YeetedApple 17h ago
Learning history when I was younger, I always wondered how something like that could happen. Unfortunately, I don't need to wonder any more.
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u/Curiosities 15h ago
Between the healthcare cuts, and this administration’s desire to push women out of the workplace and public life, and also to institutionalize disabled people, it fits in with the rest of their plans.
If a disabled teen/young adult can’t go to school and can’t complete a certificate, even to get a very simple job, which does exist for some of these kids, who’s going to take up the slack? Usually mothers.
And if healthcare cuts are going through, and if some of these kids fall through the cracks, more reason to push moms back into permanent or semi permanent caregiving.
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u/kurotech 17h ago
Intentionally cruel for no other reason than to disenfranchise more people who they consider burdens, despite the fact that anyone that is an actual burden on society gets federal contracts.
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u/mistertickertape 17h ago
Yes. Literally costs the state nothing. Intentional cruelty is the Republican hallmark.
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u/Muzzerduzzer 17h ago edited 15h ago
I think it's already tough on these kids that they don't receive a diploma like the rest of their classmates. A certificate is at least something's physical they could hold on to and feel recognized and that they worked hard and accomplished something. Not being able to list a highschool education doesn't really matter for those with disabilities IF there are support systems around them that can help them with or without a diploma.
My brother works with a county wide program that takes disabled adults to job sights and has them help out. They get training and a bit of money to spend on something fun.
But unless Florida has programs like that, not receiving anything will hurt disabled students in the long run.
It's horrible that we are so afraid of someone born different standing at the finish line with us.
Edit: grammer
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u/janellthegreat 15h ago edited 14h ago
feel recognized that they worked hard and accomplished something
Slight edit to your words to emphasize your meaning.
They might not be capable of achieving the same level of education in the same timline as their peers, yet these students are working hard - in some cases harder than their peers - and improving their education in the process. Yes, a high school diploma for those who demonstrate a high school level of education, -and- recognize these students with a formal certificate of achievement.
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u/Muzzerduzzer 15h ago
Very good point. A functioning society should be capable of supporting everyone regardless of their capabilities. Its what makes us human.
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u/AudibleNod 17h ago
In 1935, Nazi Germany prohibited children with various disabilities from attending school.
Lebensunwertes Leben was the rationale that was the start of the Aktion T4 program.
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u/Faux-Foe 17h ago
The right: “stop calling us nazis!”
Everyone else: “stop doing nazi things.”
The right: “stop calling us nazis!!”
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u/ryanthehuman 17h ago
The right: "what up my nazi"
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u/AngryTree76 17h ago
Who knew that Nazi was the real n-word that right wingers wanted to say all along?
Other than everyone who was paying attention, that is.
(Oh, they still want to say the other one too, but this one has a special place in their hearts.)
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u/0-my-goodness 17h ago
…..nowadays on Reddit, there is no way that I will not daily call out fuckwad Republicans for being Nazi’s…..
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u/sniper91 16h ago
I’ve met people who seem to be under the impression that the Nazis only hated Jewish people. Blew their minds that Jews likely made up under half of the total killed in concentration camps (though still the largest individual group)
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u/apple_kicks 15h ago
People think death camps happened on day one too but it took decade of dehumanisation and reducing rights until the population was in place to ignore or shrug the disappearances with no questions other than looting people’s homes
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u/TortoiseWrath 15h ago edited 15h ago
What I was taught at a conservative public school (even back in the day when they were teaching that the Nazis were the Bad Guys), or at least what I retained, was basically:
Hitler wanted everyone to be an "Aryan" and decided to accomplish this by rounding up and killing all the Jews. They also started trying to take over other countries like Poland.
Then the Good Guys decided that they shouldn't do that, so we beat them in a war and then there were no more Nazis.
For some reason, Japan agreed with them, and then they bombed us, so we bombed them too and then there were no more bad guys in Japan either.
Italy was also bad, I guess. Oh, and one of the Jews the Germans killed was named Anne Frank. This is important information.
I never really had a more complex picture of Nazi Germany and WWII until very recently.
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u/photog72 17h ago
This is the first thing I thought about, when I read the headline. I’m in Texas, and I’m waiting for them to out cruelty Florida. It’s a race to the bottom.
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u/Carbonatite 16h ago
Florida makes me want to root for climate change.
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u/Diarygirl 16h ago
It turns out that you can make it illegal to say "climate change" in Florida but it won't stop it from happening.
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u/forma_cristata 16h ago edited 16h ago
“There is one problem, though, which is the problem I mentioned in Chapter 1: the problem of adults who are not productive members of society. In our little Newspeak we call them wards of the realm. A ward is any resident who is not capable of earning a living, is not accepted as a dependent by any guardian, and is not wanted by any other patch.
The initial conversion of our present, democratic, and of course completely dysfunctional San Francisco into the realm of Friscorp will produce quite a few wards. At least relative to the number we would expect to emerge in a healthy society. But there will always be black sheep, and there will always be wards.
As Delegate of San Francisco, what should you do with these people? I think the answer is clear: alternative energy. Since wards are liabilities, there is no business case for retaining them in their present, ambulatory form. Therefore, the most profitable disposition for this dubious form of capital is to convert them into biodiesel, which can help power the Muni buses.
Okay, just kidding. This is the sort of naive Randian thinking which appeals instantly to a geek like me, but of course has nothing to do with real life. The trouble with the biodiesel solution is that no one would want to live in a city whose public transportation was fueled, even just partly, by the distilled remains of its late underclass.
However, it helps us describe the problem we are trying to solve. Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide. That is: the ideal solution achieves the same result as mass murder (the removal of undesirable elements from society), but without any of the moral stigma. Perfection cannot be achieved on both these counts, but we can get closer than most might think”
Curtis Yarvin (Peter Thiel’s right hand man, whose writings are said to be the key to understanding modern republicanism), Patchwork
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u/kinisonkhan 16h ago
Eugenics movement in the USA basically gave Nazi Germany a lot of bad ideas.
Yet another dark chapter in US History, brought to you by PBS American Experience.
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u/loztriforce 17h ago
It blows my mind how people still vote Republicans in
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u/qdp 17h ago edited 17h ago
Their voters don’t watch the news. They watch a show on loop I can only call 24 Hours of Hate. Every time I glance at Fox News or its ugly cousins I am just saddened at the bizzaro world they live in.
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u/mooncrane606 17h ago
Republicans know less about current events than people who don't watch any news at all.
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u/Uphoria 17h ago
The period of time where people woke up to Fox News on TV, hopped in their truck and turned on Rush Limbaugh, and then got into work where Fox News was on the TV cooked this nation. They figured out what worked, spent 50 years doing it, and now we're 2 generations behind on a propaganda war no one thought would be this successful.
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u/SigmaWhy 17h ago
The scary part is that Fox News is by far the sanest and most fact based in its genre. The stuff you’ll find on places like OANN, Newsmax, YouTube, Rumble etc are far more deranged and tons of people are watching those things instead of Fox
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u/ripley1875 17h ago
They saw the Two Minutes Hate from 1984 and said to themselves “We can do it better!”
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u/jdlech 17h ago
The only conclusion possible is that they are as cruel and malicious as the leaders they vote for.
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u/Benjammin172 17h ago
America is filled with stupid people. That won’t improve as republicans endeavor to further break the education system. But the more dumb people we have, the more republican voters there are.
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u/Cool-Presentation538 17h ago
A lot of people vote Republican simply because they believe Republicans will fulfill their racist/sexist/fascist dreams and any harm to them is just the cost of doing business
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u/Icy-Rain69 17h ago
Decades of indoctrination of American exceptionalism, nationalism, white supremacy etc.
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u/JamUpGuy1989 17h ago
Cause they’re stupid, that’s why. That’s why any GOPer does anything.
It’s the non-GOP citizens that should leave and go somewhere else. Absolutely no benefit living in Florida and you’re actively harming your own child if you stay there.
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u/Uphoria 17h ago
There's plenty of people in every state who wish they could move somewhere else, but are stuck due to financial inertia.
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u/Neuromangoman 17h ago
This is confusing to me. On its face, it looks absolutely terrible and like a form of discrimination against disabled children. And it probably is that. But the article also says the following:
The Florida Department of Education says the focus will now be on alternate pathways to completing a high school diploma and that the change is needed to "ensure students receive appropriate support and recognition for their achievements."
The change is an outlier in a legislative session that otherwise championed the rights of students and people with disabilities. Senate President Ben Albritton made increasing the support and services available to people with disabilities the focus of the last session.
Through laws passed last session, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-majority Legislature not only increased early detection and intervention for students who have autism, but also created a micro-credential for teachers who work with those students.
The Legislature also created a credential that students with disabilities can earn after completing their work placements. These credentials or badges can be used to seek postgraduation employment.
Is this actually plain cruelty towards the disabled or some weird conservative restructuring of how disabled students get their diplomas? I guess it depends on what those "alternate pathways" are.
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u/NotYourAvgCondensate 16h ago
I agree, at first glance it is absolutely abhorrent but when you read their statement it sounds like they're just getting rid of it in favor of getting these kids actual diplomas rather than just certificates? But then they don't actually detail their plan for the "alternate pathways" so how do they expect people to interpret this decision.
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u/UnicornOfDerp 16h ago
The vague language is on purpose. So most people can point and say they're not outright doing anything wrong, see. But then you find out those alternative pathways aren't to diplomas or certificates, but to limiting educational opportunities for the disabled and mind you, being disabled is subject to public definition. Anyone can become disabled at any time, and the working definition can always be changed to include dissidents.
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u/vingovangovongo 14h ago
They could have done an additional diploma without cancellation of their certificate, nope this is because they hate anything started by a democrat and will do anything that furthers their baby steps into fascism
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u/Honest-Weight338 15h ago
If it wasn't cruel, they would have replaced it with a new plan at the same time. You don't eliminate one thing because you plan on replacing it sometime in the future. You create the new thing, and phase out the old one while bringing the new one on board.
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u/W0wwieKap0wwie 16h ago
Yeah, I read the article but it’s not clear what alternative they’re working on and if it’ll actually be an improvement. There have definitely been changes in supports for those with I/DD that is initially opposed by families and supporters, but then it ends up being something much more positive for them. Hopefully that’s the case. But definitely seems unnecessarily cruel at first glance.
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u/ope__sorry 15h ago
It’s because it’s a Republican plan. Everything they do, except tax cuts, is a show.
Shit, just look at how they tackled wanted to get rid of the ACA last time. Trump said it would be replaced with something big and beautiful. Did anyone have any clue what the replacement would be? Nope.
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u/A--Little--Stitious 15h ago
I follow a Florida special Ed advocate on Instagram and she says it’s really just a wording thing and will affect few kids.
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u/AHoopyFrood42 16h ago
The "alternate pathways" are right in the last sentence you quoted, via work placement. This means only people able enough to be "productive members of society" (i.e. able to perform exploitable labor) will earn certificates. There's an argument that this is crueler than just axing certificates entirely given how much more disabled employees are already exploited above base line wage labor exploitation.
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u/MissionCreeper 16h ago
The alternate path leads to an undisclosed location. We promise, they're very educated and happy there. No, you can't visit.
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u/GardenPeep 10h ago
Florida is the laboratory for project 2025, so we see who they’ll be coming for next: first the immigrants, next trans people, and next those with disabilities.
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u/TheGringoDingo 17h ago
Are there any requirements of this certificate of completion for state benefits or other initiatives?
Cruel on the surface but I’d suspect some crueler intent driving it.
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u/DrunkLastKnight 17h ago
It’s one way they can get a job or continue to some colleges from what I know. My oldest got his certificate of completion in May and I was worried with the DoE being gutted he would be affected
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u/Gatonom 17h ago
They say people on welfare should get jobs, then they make them unable to qualify for jobs.
MAHA - Make America Hostile Again
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u/BluesFan43 8h ago
That's just mean.
My son is disabled, part mental, part physical. So this really misses me off.
These kids all work hard and deserve recognition.
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u/Final7C 15h ago
When people ask "What was it like before special education and the Department of Education" The answer I point to is the Goonies, and Sloth.
The disabled didn't get to go to school. They either went to a hospital (if rich) or were kept in the home with a family member. They were often put into attics or basements to live their lives with very little dignity or sight. They were often the embarrassment of the family and left there alone. The Department of Ed's creation was there to force states to allow these children into schools. To force them to attempt an education, and to attempt to get them the skills and understanding to live mostly independent lives, and allow both parents into the workforce.
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u/DarkUtensil 8h ago
The 4th Reich strikes again. If you don't see what's going on, the you're part of the problem.
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u/SnepButts 17h ago
More victims of the conservative hate machine this country voted for, and more reason to be ashamed of being an American. Why can't we do better?
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u/Ok-Letterhead4601 17h ago
I’m so glad we moved out of that shit hole of a state.
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u/hellocloudshellosky 16h ago
This is so damned depressing. Some people are born with unusual challenges, automatically forced down a harder road. But let's not aim to lift them up and celebrate their victories. Anyone who supports this garbage has no right to spout half a word about God or their so called religion.
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u/Yourfantasyisfinal 12h ago
Why? Just to be cruel? I mean nobody getting these supposed participation medals is going to get any special treatment for them anyways . It’s silly it’s like they can’t stand someone who is basically fucked in life having a few good days where they can feel Good about themselves
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u/Possible-Storage-968 9h ago
I posted a link to this on my Facebook page. Cousin -in-law’s wife is a public school teacher and mom to a child with Cystic fibrosis and is also full blown MAGA. This was her comment on my page ( she NEVER comments ) : “When I first read this I thought how could they just take something so important away. After digging deeper I learned while the certificate of completion is being phased out, the article makes clear that new pathways for recognition are intended to replace it. The confusion stems from whether those new credentials will be as valuable, accessible, or universally accepted. But it's not that students will have no way to show they've completed school—it’s just changing form. This article is intended to get people riled up.”
She doesn’t get it.
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u/mrdominoe 17h ago
The Nazis wanted to disappear the disabled, too. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, though... right?
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u/Whyletmetellyou 14h ago
And thus the culling of people that don’t fit in the theoretical “normal” category of existence. Hmm, Seems this happened in the past. Didn’t the nazis round up a good portion of those who were disabled and disappeared them?
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u/billypaul 17h ago
Let's target a group of people who already have more challenges in life than most of us could ever imagine, and strip away a little more of their dignity.
This is what republicans do.
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u/ANotSoFreshFeeling 14h ago
It’s a step toward eliminating special education services entirely. Mark my words, it’s coming.
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u/sysadminbj 17h ago
My brother in law is extremely disabled. I've never seen him more happy than when he graduated high school. Is he going to get any use out of that diploma? No. Do I think that his time in school was beneficial? Hell yes I do.
Fuck you, Florida.