It seems like a good approach but the funding of things like special needs education (FAPE) is federal in nature; cutting those would likely nuke special needs

It seems like a good approach but the funding of things like special needs education (FAPE) is federal in nature; cutting those would likely nuke special needs programs nationwide. You would need to start with your 2nd or 3rd "approximation" of your iterative approach (ie, pre-calc which programs are already popular/effective and keep those) unless your goal is to cause maximum disruption and possibly jeopardize your ability to do the "make Federal recommendations" effectively.