At first glance, the debate over funding for special education in public schools may look like just an education issue.

It’s not.

It’s a workforce issue. It’s a future talent issue. And for every employer who talks about innovation, diversity of thought, inclusion, or competitive advantage—this is your issue, too.

As someone who spends her career helping organizations build workplaces where people with disabilities can thrive, I can tell you this with absolute clarity: Cutting special education funding is not just harmful to children. It’s harmful to our future workforce and our nation’s economic health.

IEPs Are Not About Lower Ability—They’re About Equal Access

There is a persistent misunderstanding about what an Individualized Education Program (IEP) really means. An IEP is not an indicator of lower intelligence or reduced potential. It is a civil rights tool—designed to give a student with a physical disability, a processing difference, a learning variance, or a medical condition equal access to the same educational opportunity as their peers.

IEPs exist because our educational system is, by necessity, one-size-fits-most. But we know—because science, neurology, and lived experience tell us—that human beings do not come in a single model.

Some of the most brilliant, creative, innovative thinkers of our generation would never have survived a rigid, standardized system without support. Not because they lacked potential—but because the system lacked flexibility.

If We Shrink Special Education, We Shrink Our Workforce

Here are the truths employers need to confront:

If fewer students with disabilities successfully get through K–12, fewer will reach college.
If fewer reach college, fewer will enter our workforce.

We talk endlessly about the need for diverse thinkers, for people who solve problems differently, for talent that sees the world from new angles. Neurodiversity, disability diversity, and cognitive variance are not buzzwords—they are competitive advantages.

But that innovation pipeline starts in kindergarten. It starts with whether we choose to support or abandon students whose brilliance doesn’t show up on standard forms.

Cutting special education is not “tightening a budget line.” It’s eliminating the supports that allow thousands of future engineers, nurses, coders, mechanics, artists, analysts, designers, teachers, and leaders to access their education at all.

Critiquing the System Is Fair. Abandoning It Is Lazy.

Let’s be clear: Special education is not perfect. It can be inconsistent, bureaucratic, expensive for schools, misused by some, and hard to navigate for families that need it. We should absolutely work to fix what is broken.

But throwing out a system because it isn’t perfect is not leadership. It’s avoidance.

Fixing something complicated is harder—but we owe people with disabilities hard things.

Not just because it is right, but because it is strategically smart.

When we invest in accessibility early, when we create equitable pathways for students with disabilities, we are cultivating employees who think differently, problem-solve creatively, and expand what is possible in our workplaces.

Business Leaders: This Is Your Fight, Too

If you are a CEO, HR professional, DEI leader, or anyone who cares about the future of talent, you cannot sit out the conversation on special education funding.

Many of the innovations you hope to see in the next 10, 20, or 30 years are sitting in a classroom today. Some of those future innovators rely on special education services to get the same shot at learning as everyone else.

Removing those supports now won’t save money in the long run. It will cost us—deeply—in lost talent, lost creativity, lost contributions, and lost human potential.

We can do better. We must do better.

The choice in front of us is simple: Cut what isn’t perfect—or commit to fixing what matters.

For our children.
For our workplaces.
For the future workforce we all depend on.