In a video from last October, the Fond Du Lac Marching Cardinals marching band performs a medley of songs at the state marching band championship at UW-Whitewater.
Standing on the front sideline with the percussionists is Liam Anderson. He's hitting all the right beats in the "drum break" of the show, where the drum line and percussion section rock out in the middle of the band's performance.
Standing behind him and not playing an instrument is Anderson's intervener, Mary. She was trained by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction specifically to work with students who are both deaf and blind.
“She has been a lifeline and the reason why Liam has been so successful in many things in his life," Anderson's mother, Jodi, said of Mary and her son.
Mary has helped Anderson cultivate his love for music and his incredible sense of rhythm. Performing with the marching band is one of her son's favorite things in life, Jodi Anderson says.
Since the 1960s, a program called the Wisconsin Deaf Blind Technical Assistance Program provides vital resources like intervenors, braille workshops, support groups and caregiver training to help students succeed. The state department of education took over the federally-funded program in 2008.
But in August, program coordinators learned that the Trump administration has canceled funding the project. The Department of Education said it will not fund the remaining three years of its grant for a total of $551,000.
U.S. Department of Education targets hiring practices it says threatens 'merit and fairness' in education
The Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Program, or WDBTAP, serves 170 people in Wisconsin between birth and age 21. It’s not just extra help for a few hours a month. It’s been a constant source of support and resources for a generation of deafblind children.
“WDBTAP has been with me since I was four," says Sid Miller, a participant in the program who lives in Cedar Grove. He’s 19 years old and has been deaf and blind since his birth in Thailand.
We are speaking via a Zoom call, where Miller used live closed captioning software to track what I am saying in real time. He wouldn’t have known that type of technology existed if not for WDBTAP.
"They have impacted my life a lot and helped me in ways that we would not have been able to get help from other places," Miller says. "They were able to give us suggestions, accommodations and technology that other people would not have been able to provide. WDBTAP is unique in that way.”
The education department's justification for cutting the program was that the project’s hiring practices “conflict with the Department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.”
The grant program requires two people of marginalized background on its screening panels. It also aims to diversify its applicant pools for new jobs.
Families said they were also told the grant was pulled because its application materials included the words “transition” and “privilege.” The first, in reference to helping participants transition from high school to life after school. The second, apparently included in a testimonial from a family that said it was a privilege to participate in the project.
Adrian Klenz, who runs the Center for Deaf-Blind Persons in West Allis and works with adults who age out of the state’s program, highlighted the relatively small cost of the program — just under 200,000 per year.
“It’s not that the money’s not there. They’re just going to reallocate it somewhere else. And that’s what’s even more frustrating," he says.
"It’s not like, ‘Hey, we don’t have money, so we have to cut this program.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, we came across some words we don’t like so we’re going to get rid of your funding and give it to somebody else,'" he adds.
"Now you’ve got 170 children and their families that are left in the dark because of that."
The U.S. Department of Education did not return a call for comment or clarification.
Deafblind program represents DEI goals. But families say that's the point.
In the most basic sense, many families agreed that Wisconsin’s deafblind technical assistance program embodies DEI.
The students who participate in it have a diverse range of assistive devices and conditions. Some use cochlear implants while others read braille. Some students use wheelchairs or canes. Some students are nonverbal while others communicate using devices or written language.
The program also aims for equity among students at school and inclusion of students with disabilities into marching band and field trips and virtual learning.
Jodi Anderson, Liam’s mom, says she can’t understand why the administration could cut a program that it knows so little about.
“The people who are making these decisions have no idea how they’re affecting, and how they’re affecting. They don’t understand. It’s such a small group," she says.
"I guess you don’t want kids who have sensory losses to have any sort of ability to be equal to their peers in school. Got it," she adds.
The project’s coordinators have appealed the department’s decision, but funding is set to expire on Sept. 30.
Program cuts are 'incredibly short-sighted and unfair,' parent says
Jennifer Robers-Miller, Sid’s mom, says she doesn’t see how the program can be successfully restarted if funding truly runs out.
She also doesn’t know how deafblind students in Wisconsin will be able to move forward.
“It just seems incredibly short-sighted and incredibly unfair that we are cutting off funding from making people productive members of society as they grow," she says. "Making sure they they can get the best education, (and) the best independence they can possibly get by cutting off a grant that’s taking care of so many things for so many different people.”
For now, a crucial lifeline for so many vulnerable students across Wisconsin may be lost.
What comes next is what families fear.
Katherine Kokal is the education reporter at 89.7 WUWM - Milwaukee's NPR. Have a question about schools or an education story idea? You can reach her at kokal@uwm.edu
