Archive | January, 2017

Betsy DeVos, a potential disaster for the autism community

30 Jan

President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education is a woman by the name of Betsy DeVos. Ms. Devos has long been an advocate for alternatives to public education. She’s pushed voucher programs and charter schools. Both programs have generally left students with disabilities behind.

Here is one of the videos from Ms. DeVos’ hearing before the Senate HELP Committee. This one doesn’t even catch some of her more embarrassing statements.

If you watch this video, you will see that Ms. DeVos routinely refuses to answer important and direct questions. Would she enforce Federal law? Well, she didn’t even understand that the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was Federal law. In many programs where students are offered vouchers, disabled students have to waive their rights under IDEA. Ms. DeVos was asked if she would support students being able to keep their rights–and she refuses repeatedly to answer.

There are a few catch phrases you will hear from her that basically amount to “I don’t know what I’m talking about but I don’t want to admit it.” When asked about IDEA she responded repeatedly that these decisions “should be left to the states”.

People often dodge these sorts of questions when they know their answers will be criticized (think of Trump’s “I can’t release my tax returns because I’m being audited” claim. It wasn’t true and now he’s confirmed that he has no intention of releasing them.).

I don’t have the time to go into more details, but she would be a major disaster for the disability community–obviously especially those still in school. Please look into this. If you decide, like I have, that she is not an education secretary who would benefit our kids, act. Call your representatives. Ask them to not approve her. It can make a difference. Here’s one example:

Keep Calling Your Representatives; It’s Working
Thanks to over 1,000 phone calls from concerned constituents, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp announced she would not vote to confirm Betsy DeVos.

Search news sites for discussions of Betsy DeVos. Find your Senator’s phone number and call. Make your voice heard.

I can’t make a comprehensive list of articles but here are two:

Here is a recent article:
Progressives launch last-minute push against Betsy DeVos, and conservatives counter with online ad campaign

And another:
What’s the worst that could happen with Betsy DeVos as education secretary? Two scenarios.

If you thought Donald Trump might have any priority for disability issues, think again

25 Jan

Right after Donald Trump was sworn in as president the website for the White House was drastically changed. While news stories focused on topics like climate change, much less attention was given to the fact that pages on disability issues also disappeared. Disability Scoop discusses this as Disability References Removed From White House Website.

Where Hillary Clinton had a focus on disability issues (she reached out to the disability community and had an actual disability platform), candidate Trump had no such focus. One of the memorable moments from Mr. Trump’s campaign was where he mocked a disabled reporter, but failed to show the integrity of admitting his disrespect when called on it.

There is a Trump apologist argument that says Mr. Trump wasn’t mocking the reporter. As one such apologist put it, Mr. Trump was just “doing a standard retard” (insulting and disrespectful, but that’s exactly what she said). I would welcome video of Mr. Trump making the same motions while mocking someone else.

Disability issues will likely not be a priority for this administration. Frankly, be prepared to see funding cuts and, at best, indifference from Mr. Trump.

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By Matt Carey

Donald Trump believes that “the education is flush with cash”. How did he get that “alternative fact”?

23 Jan

Donald Trump was inaugurated last Friday. His speech was overall very poor, but one statement stood out to me above all the others. A statement which is not getting much (if any) press:

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

Emphasis added.

I don’t think anyone who actually deals with the education system in America would consider it “flush with cash”. That said, no one involved in special education would every say such a clearly false statement.

We absolutely are not serving our students, but this is because our education system is woefully underfunded. My own district cut back on many school days a few years ago when California cut the funding sent to districts. Guess what, when funding returned, the district didn’t restore the days we lost. We have about 10 education days fewer than before the budget crunch.

And that’s just in general. Special Education, since the first law in the 1970’s, was supposed to come with 40% of the costs covered by the Federal Government. OK, they said a “maximum” of 40%, but the Federal government has never come close. Estimates are that the contribution is about 17%.

These are the disabled children of our country. Does “America First” mean, “non disabled American’s first”, Mr Trump? Or will you be the one who finally corrects this injustice? That’s going to be hard to do if you think that schools are “flush with cash”.

You’ve come down from your tower to live in a mansion. One walled off from the world. And you surround yourself with people who, like you, don’t understand the experiences of the majority of Americans. And when you make statements like “flush with cash”, it shows.

I’ll be honest, one disappointment with Mr. Obama’s administration was his failure to live up to America’s commitment to people with disabilities, including funding Special Education. How about you prove you can do better than Mr. Obama–don’t tell us that school systems are “flush with cash”, make them flush with cash.

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By Matt Carey

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