Maggie Hassan: “First of all, my question starts with a thank-you, Senator Merkley, for raising the issue of the growing threat of…”

“First of all, my question starts with a thank-you, Senator Merkley, for raising the issue of the growing threat of authoritarianism in our country. I thank you for noting and being a champion of the very principle that our country was founded on, which is that we are a country--a government--of, by, and for the people. As I think about what that principle means, I think about the fact that in a democracy, what our Founders wanted to ensure was that our governing bodies, our elected officials, would, in fact, be accountable to the people. So what does being accountable to the people you represent mean? Well, about 50 years ago, this Congress came together and, in a bipartisan way, passed something called the IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Why? Because families all across this country, from every political persuasion, understood that their children with disabilities could learn and thrive if they had access to public education just the way other kids did. Because families spoke up, because individuals spoke up, we now have seen 50 years of IDEA special education in our schools. We have more work to do in that direction, to be sure. We need to get more resources to our local schools the way the IDEA originally promised we would from the Federal Government.”