Palin Unveils Plan for Children With Special Needs
Campaigning in Pennsylvania Friday, Alaska Governor and candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin unveiled her and John McCain’s plan for children with special needs.
Parents of such children have found an outspoken friend in Palin thus far. Only recently, videos were published at this and other sites in which those parents can be seen and heard explaining their passionate support for Palin.
Palin’s youngest son, Trig, has Down Syndrom, meaning that she understands better than most what kind of support families need when they have such a child.
The plan to help consists out of three points: more (school) choice for parents, more funding for children with disabilities and services available to parents, medical professionals and schools will be improved.
“Even the best public school teacher or administrator really cannot rightfully take the place of a parent making these choices,” Palin said.
“The schools feel responsible for the education of many children, but a parent alone is responsible for the life of each child and how to make that life better.”
At the official campaign website the campaign explains:
1. “Allow Parents Of Students With Disabilities To Choose The Best School For Their Child. Parents should be able to send their child, especially a child with a disability, to a school of their choice so that they can get the best education possible. Using the Florida McKay scholarship as a model starting point, the McCain Administration will allow states to develop programs that allow parents to choose public or private schools, with federal funding following the child. The McCain-Palin team will also expect states to hold these schools accountable for their results. This proposal carries no cost beyond IDEA funding. States should be allowed to develop these programs with their federal IDEA funds and state and local funds.”
2. “Make Explicit That Federal Funds Are Fully Portable. John McCain and Sarah Palin believe parents of students with disabilities should be allowed to use federal funds at any qualified school of their choice, public or private, religious or secular without forcing them into an administrative process. Currently, the district or the specific school can make such a recommendation. This initiative will allow the parents to make the choice and recommendations themselves. The McCain administration will work to make this a reality.”
3. “The McCain Administration Will Fully Fund The IDEA. Special Education has been a federal issue since 1975, when President Ford signed the law now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — IDEA. While IDEA has been improved and strengthened over the years, its primary funding commitment has never been met.”
4. “Full Federal Funding Of IDEA Is Estimated At $26 Billion Annually Compared To The Current Level Of $10.9 Billion. Using a phased-in increase of $3 billion annually in order to reach the full funding in five years will cost an additional $45 billion over five years. Full funding for IDEA means the federal government would pay 40 percent of the costs of the K-12 special education program.”
5. “Provide Information And Assistance To Families Of Infants And Toddlers With Special Needs And Up-To-Date Information For Medical Professionals. The Parent Training and Information (PTI) Centers and Community Parent Information Centers (CPRCs) provide needed information and assistance. Unfortunately, to date, their focus has been parents of school age children; the McCain Administration will refocus IDEA so that the Centers must expand to parents with children ages 0-3. In addition, the McCain Administration will call for the Centers to provide access to better information for medical professionals about improvements in resources and the availability of assistance. In turn, these medical professionals will be able to provide better information to parents. This can be done with no additional cost beyond IDEA funding as it merely refocuses existing funding.”
6. “Increase Funding For States To Improve Services To Families With Infants And Toddlers. Almost 80 percent of families with special needs children from birth through three years old serve their children at home under the IDEA program. Parents and families will benefit from improved programs and resources to maximize their child’s potential in the early years under a McCain Administration. Currently, this part of IDEA is minimally funded.”
7. “Improve Services To Students With Disabilities In High Schools And Community Colleges. The McCain Administration will modernize the Vocational Rehabilitation Act to improve services to students with disabilities in high schools and community colleges. Require states to demonstrate proven outcomes for students with disabilities that lead to gainful employment when they graduate. When the Vocational Rehabilitation Act is modernized, funding should be refocused to incentivize proven outcomes for students with disabilities.”
Lastly, a video of NBC about Palin’s bond with parents who, like she, have children with special needs.
I commend her advocacy in favor of special needs children. It’s probably one of the best things about her. I did not appreciate her complaints about funding going into “useless” projects like “studying fruit flies”. She literally said “I kid you not”, as if researching fruit flies is the most ridiculous thing she could think of. Her speech writer could have passed that by any biology major and they would have told her that Drosophila (the fruit fly) is one of the major models for scientific research, and studies in Drosophila are linked to a huge number of important scientific advancements, especially in the field of developmental biology. That includes studies on autism.
Still, the core message is a good one, and Palin is hardly where I’d go for scientific know-how. The flaw is more her speech writers fault, and anyway it’s only going to annoy scientists like myself, most of whom probably aren’t huge Palin fans anyway.
Giving more support to families with special needs is important, but it must be combined with scientific studies that look into the root causes of certain syndromes. Autism has been going up spectacularly. The root causes and possible solutions must be found.