Palin and the Disability Community
September 15, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The September 13th St. Paul Pioneer Press notes this about Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s “track record” on spending for special needs:
In the budget she signed into law earlier this year, Palin approved a dramatic raise in spending on children who have what Alaska officials call “intensive needs,” including children who need nurses full time or cannot breathe without ventilators.
When Palin took office, the state was spending $27,000 a year on each such child. The budget she signed this year raises funding to $49,000 per child. In three years, the amount will rise to $74,000, roughly equal to the $75,000 a year cost of educating such children.
The public school teachers union in Alaska, the National Education Association-Alaska, has lauded Palin’s action, although it has not endorsed her.
Several other disability programs received increases. Since she became governor in 2006, she has nearly doubled state spending to combat fetal alcohol syndrome and increased spending on adult mental health services by 59 percent. She also has shifted about $1.25 million in state money to faith-based programs that provide social services.
Regarding Governor Palin’s position on education, and special education, more specifically (the “intensive needs” of the children noted above seem to be more strictly medical), is an article from the August Education Week about the education funding bill signed by Governor Palin in March. While Alaska “[u]nlike many other states, ….. has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues,” funding for schools will still be “fairly level next year”:
This plan enacted in the recently concluded session of the legislature, is based on recommendations issued by a legislative task force last year. It will phase in a greater flow of money to districts outside of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, over the next five years.
Advocates for rural and remote schools have lobbied for years for more funding, in particular noting the higher fuel, transportation, and other costs associated with providing education in communities scattered across the vast state.
A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. Total K-12 funding will rise to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion, when transportation, energy, and other state funds are included, according to estimates from the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.
If you go to the link about the K-12 Education Funding Plan, you see this. After costs for fuel, transportation, and the like, how much of the increase is meant for training of teachers, facilities and classrooms, staff:student ratios?
The St. Paul Pioneer Press refers to President John F. Kennedy’s sister Rosemary, who had intellectual disabilities, and interviews Anthony Shriver, whose mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics.
“The more advocates there are for children with special needs, the better,” said Anthony Shriver, founder of Best Buddies, which has raised money and provided services for children with such disabilities for 20 years.
But he is somewhat skeptical about Palin and the GOP.
“Historically, Republicans haven’t been that interested,” Shriver said. “To have an advocate in the Republican Party is a new twist and welcome addition.”
Shriver noted that last year, his sister, California first lady Maria Shriver, sent letters to the nation’s governors, including Palin, asking them to employ people with intellectual disabilities. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made two such hires. Palin replied that she would refer the matter to an aide and did not commit to making a hire.
In Anthony Shriver’s view, Palin acted “as if we don’t need anybody’s help — thanks but no thanks. … She kind of blew us off. I’m glad she has had the conversation.”
Go here to read about Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s support for fulling funding IDEA, and here regarding his support for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and about the employment of persons with disabilities.Patricia E. Bauer say this on her website about disability news and advocacy:
Some parents of children with disabilities are enthusiastic over Gov. Palin’s pledge of support, but advocacy on behalf of the disability community has not been “a centerpiece of Ms. Palin’s 20-months in office or any of her campaigns for office.”
“I never heard Governor Palin say as governor, ‘You have an advocate in Juneau,’ ” said Sonja Kerr, a lawyer specializing in disability law in Anchorage.
A spokeswoman for Palin would not elaborate on her decision to give disability issues prominent placement in her acceptance speech.
John McCain has voted against increasing federal special education funding, and also opposes legislation that would help states move people with disabilities from institutions into community living arrangements.
From a guest post by the directors of the Beach Center on Disability in Kansas:
When a young governor line-item vetoes six appropriations for community disability services or for accessibility modifications to public accommodations, that governor gives us reason to be skeptical about promises and prospective performance. When the appropriations totaled $749,000 in a state that has a huge budget surplus, and when the governor apparently knew at the time that her nephew has autism, that governor gives us special reason to doubt her commitment to people with special needs.
Yes, state funding for “intensive special needs children” in Alaska increased for Fiscal Year 2010. But it is not yet clear exactly who those children are, how many of them are the intended beneficiaries of the appropriation, and precisely what role the governor had in proposing the appropriation or influencing the legislature to appropriate the funds.
In a word, Gov. Palin’s record on disability leaves us with our doubts about her promise.
It also prompts us to concentrate on the governor’s dismissive mockery of community organizing and its portent for the disability community.
The truth is that community organizing benefits people with disabilities.
And another voice from the disability community, Erika J., on Disability Nation, where she writes about Palin as the center of controversy for the disability community and about Palin and adults with disabilities.
These are important points about what’s behind Palin’s attitude and where those attitudes have taken us.
That attitude that includes the misbehavior of the Kennedy’s in how Rosemary was dis empowered and made to be more disabled by the wrongful treatments she received as a result of their attitude, shows very well how integrated those attitudes are in the minds of too many American people.
Hiding disabled people and their disabilities needs to stop….(and yes that is behind the wrongful treatments). AND along with pulling these people out of hiding we need to work on why people thought they needed to be hidden in the first place.
Policy, wrongful treatments (medical, behavioral, and psychological), standardized testing, designer babies, and the negative stereotypes that are allowed, are all started by and promoted by these attitudes.
Thank you for sharing this. It is very thought provoking.
This is an excellent post. For more on the candidates’ plans and positions on disabilities, visit http://www.specialneeds08.blogspot.com, created by a father (me) who has a 4-year-old girl with autism.
@Mark Miller, thank you, and thanks even more for your blog—-great posts on disability and politics and more. Hope things have been ok with your daughter——-very very best——
Sarah Palin and Disability Rights 9/4/08
Another summary of what is on record of Governor Palin’s advocacy for children with special needs.
“Children with Autism in Alaska need comprehensive school and home services” 9/2/08
Including,
* In the Superior Court for the State of Alaska Third Judicial District at Anchorage,
First Amended complaint of Cindy Olson, for herself and Cindy Olson on Behalf of W.O. a minor
vs. State of Alaska; Sarah Palin, Governor of State of Alask; Department of Education and Early Development; Roger Sampson, Commissioner of the Dept. of Education and Early Development; Department of Health and Social Services; Karleen jackson, Commissioner of the Dept. of Health and Social Services; Anchorage School District; Carol Comeau, Superintendent of Anchorage School District and Anchorage School Board.
August 7, 2007
* Autism Issues and Needs
The Governor’s Council on Disabilities and Special Education-Alaska, 2006 25pp.
I received a very interesting email this AM, both because of the subject of the candidates, but also as, I believe, a useful summing up of the issues at stake in re: special education and IDEA. This is long, so I hope it posts. All the candidates are addressed, but V-P candidate Gov. Palin in particular.
[quote]
Subject: Palin and Special Education
Dear clients, friends, colleagues, and all of the above,
As we near the Presidential election in just three weeks, I have been asked by many of you to comment on my thoughts on Gov. Palin and what she can and will do for special education students. As an attorney whose practice focuses exclusively on the representation of children with disabilities, I always investigate candidates’ positions and records on this very critical moral and financial issue. One of my clients recently suggested that I share with others what I have learned, and so here it is.
When Gov. Palin first came to my attention, I was, as I am sure all of you who care about this issue, intrigued to have someone on the national platform who talks about children with special needs. Since hearing her say this repeatedly in speeches, I have been waiting, and waiting, to hear some specifics on special education reform. Most of all, I want to know what her stance is on the IDEA, the federal statute that governs special education.
The IDEA is up for reauthorization by Congress in 2010, and it is crucial that it reflect the policies and funding structure necessary to protect and appropriately educate our children with disabilities. I needed to know what Gov. Palin thinks about the future of special education legislation in this country.
I know where the other three on the tickets stand; Senators Obama and Biden have issued position statements on the IDEA to various parent groups, strongly supporting full funding for the IDEA and the rights of children with disabilities and their parents. The Obama-Biden website has a direct link to the ticket’s position on disabilities. Senator McCain’s website does not have such a link and neither he nor Palin have provided those positions on the IDEA to parent advocacy groups. Senator McCain does have a supportive position on the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) which has been published. I was, however, extremely disappointed in his discussion on the Senate floor regarding the Reauthorization of the IDEA 2004, in which he expressed his concerns that parents of children with disabilities who have to sue to secure appropriate services for their children under the Statute and win against districts shouldn’t have their attorneys’ fees covered. This is not just a matter of self-interest for me; it is the difference between families, especially poor families, being able to vindicate their civil rights or not. But I knew those things, I did not know where Palin stood, and I wanted to find out.
Having waited for some specifics from her on just how she is going to be an advocate for children with special needs in the White House, I finally got close. In her recent interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, she was asked what her position is. While never mentioning the IDEA at all or what needs to be changed, kept, or fixed in it, she stated that the issue that needs to be addressed is “equal access” for children with special needs.
EQUAL ACCESS? Seriously? We HAVE equal access, that is what the original version of the Statute fought for in the early 70s, when children with disabilities were literally prohibited from attending our public schools. Equal access is so far in the minority of what needs to be addressed in special education I hardly know where to begin. Our problems are not that children with disabilities aren’t allowed into the buildings; our problem is what happens when they get there! What about a Free and Appropriate Public Education? What about “meaningful educational benefit?” What about giving children with special needs the tools to thrive and prosper and be fully independent adults, which is what the IDEA now stands for? We are decades from equal access being the key question, and apparently Gov. Palin is not aware of that fact.
Now, you might say “well, Jen, I am a parent of a child with special needs and I didn’t know that either.” Okay, my response: “are you running for Vice President of the United States? Are you telling the nation that you would see yourself as the voice for those children within the federal government? If you were, do you think you might have looked into it a little bit?”
It is not terribly surprising to me that Gov. Palin’s views on this are so far outdated. I have traveled to Alaska to give a speech to parents and professionals on the subject of the rights of children with special needs, in particular children with autism spectrum disorders. I was stunned by how far behind the State was from the vast majority of the rest of the country on the education of children with disabilities. Perhaps, for Alaskans, “equal access” IS the problem, but it is certainly not the case in Connecticut or most of the rest of the country. I am in regular contact with a colleague of mine who is a Parents’ attorney in Alaska, who has had to fight tooth and nail for children with special needs in Alaska simply to secure them the most basic of services that we take for granted here. I for one do not want the rest of the country to use Alaska’s system of educating our most vulnerable children as a paradigm.
Okay, yes, you all know I’m a liberal…but that’s one of the reasons that I chose to get into the field of representing children with special needs, because I believe in my heart that this last bastion of civil rights is absolutely critical to fight. We need major fixes in our special education system, and if you think that who is in the White House does not effect you on this issue, you couldn’t be more wrong. IT MATTERS. It matters in terms of funding and at least as, if not more, importantly, enforcement. Our IDEA enforcement, even in States like CT where we have zealous advocacy, is woefully inadequate. School districts routinely violate the procedural and substantive rights of children and parents and only in a small fraction of cases are they taken to task for it. It also matters because the next President will have at least a few Supreme Court appointments to make. We have had more decisions from the United States Supreme Court in the area of special education law in the last few years than we had for decades. Those decisions have tremendous impact on whether parents have the right to have proper evaluations done for their children, how and when parents can exercise their rights under the IDEA, who has the burden of proof in Due Process Hearings, and a myriad of other issues which directly impact our children with special needs.
Whether we properly educate and embrace our children with disabilities is crucial to the future of this country, as the cost of NOT doing so will be far larger than the cost of doing so…leaving out the fact that it happens to also be the right thing to do in a great society. This issue should be front and center for any candidate for the White House, and I write to let you know that, at least as far as Gov. Palin is concerned, it has been an opportunity not only missed, but frighteningly misunderstood. It does not bode well for her, for us, or most importantly, for the children we love who need and deserve better in an “advocate in the White House.”
I will be casting my vote on November 4th for Obama-Biden, and I hope you will join me. They and their party have been on the side of children with special needs historically, and they will be on their side in the future. As our economy implodes and State and local educational budgets tighten, if we do not turn this around now, I fear that we will, once again, be fighting only for “equal access” for our kids. That is unacceptable to me.
Finally, for any of our more conservative clients who I may have offended, my apologies; I respect your views even if I disagree with them. However, to calm your concerns, Attorney Dana Jonson and I have convened Personnel Board consisting of the two of us, which has investigated the matter and determined that you continue to have excellent legal representation.
Thanks for reading, please feel free to forward this email to any and all people you know who care about the future of special education in this country.
Best, Jennifer Laviano
The Law Offices of Jennifer Laviano, LLC
Sherman, CT
[end of quote]