Palin to Talk Policy on Special Needs Issues
Justin Bathon on Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 11:29PM Anyone that has been following the blog at all the past couple months will know that Jim Gerl, of the Special Education Law Blog, and I have had a bit of personal quest to get something out of the candidates on special education policy (Jim more so than me - and it was his idea to start). So far ... not much luck.
But, alas, our long quest may be about to come to an end. Sarah Palin is expected to give a policy speech on special needs children tomorrow. In fact, it will be her first and only (to date) policy speech whatsoever. Who knew special education issues carried such import!
Of course, I am going to be watching this closely. I have been critical (as have others) of Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain for using a child's disability as a political ploy. So, I have high expectations for this policy address. Since they are billing it as a policy address, I am expecting real policies. Real ideas. Real improvements. Just something real, period. Here's hoping Jim and I will finally be able to rest easy tomorrow night knowing that at least someone has decided to talk seriously about this issue.
Update: Well, just watched the speech and I am going to give it a B. First, only MSNBC (surprise) carried the whole speech. Even Fox News cut her off and CNN didn't even carry it to begin with. She gave the speech in a small auditorium, but the sounds of children were clearly evident, which I think is nice.
Here are some policy ideas: The big idea was choice (vouchers, I assume) for special needs parents. Parents could be given a voucher and then choose where to spend that voucher, either public or private. Another idea was to strengthen NIH for "cures." Also, she advocated for "administrative clarification" and finally she said that IDEA will be fully funded under a McCain-Palin administration.
I am not going to evaluate the policy proposals, but clearly the choice/voucher idea makes little sense to me. Of course, she didn't say how it would actually work, so it is hard to judge. The fully funding proposal certainly is a statement that will resonate with special education advocates and, if it is implemented, would actually help the states.
But, besides the policy proposals, which probably deserve about a C-, she deserves some credit for being empathitic. I think there is genuine identification with special needs parents and recognition of some of the critical issues. She said that schools are doing the best they can, but that parents know that it is just not good enough for their kids. And, I think that shows at least some degree of a higher level of policy critique. This is not a issue where there is a clear bad guy and she seems to recognize that.
Additionally, I am going to give her a lot of credit for doing it. Yes, there was some pressure as the major media outlets criticized the Republican ticket for a lack of specifics and using Trig Palin as a political ploy, but less than two weeks out there are a lot of bigger issues that can score more political points. She has chosen to use one of the few remaining days in this election to devote to special needs issues. Let's not kid ourselves, Sarah Palin's time in the spotlight is about over. The chances of McCain winning this election are about nill. So, I think there is at least some degree of honor in Gov. Palin's choice to highlight special education issues with her dwindling campaign megaphone.
So, a B. The policy proposals were not great, but the speech serves to highlight special education at least to some degree ... and I think that benefits special education and special needs students.
Reader Comments (4)
A 'B', huh? As an adult educator, with a husband who is a high school teacher, we both found a serious lack of real substance in her remarks. She focused solely on grade-school children and only 1 or 2 aspects of the Spec. Ed. situation as it stands now. She missed the mark that MOST parents with special needs children are worried about....access to healthcare - which will directly affect education/learning potential in the special needs community.
Great, we're going to freeze spending, but fully fund IDEA. What happens to other programs in the Domestic Discretionary Budget for that to happen? Pell Grants, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, WIC, clean-energy research, Section 8 housing — dozens and dozens of programs will need to be cut by an average of 6.4%. Yeah.
While she hooked the ticket up to the idea of funding IDEA, there was no strong commitment to it, nor plan proposed for implementing it.
She completely ignored the Community Choice Act (CCA) which would make $$ that is normally spent on institutionalization available for home-based care.
She talked about 'choices' in education (private vs public), but made no mention of any guidelines that would prevent schools from discriminating against our children based on test scores.
As she rightly said "For many parents of children with disabilities, the most valuable thing of all is information." What she totally glossed over, though, is that the information comes through sources her ticket is NOT endorsing: guaranteed medical coverage for all children. Where does most of our early information about our children and their 'condition' come from? Our doctors. Doctors our children won't see without insurance. Therapists that our children won't see without coverage. Visiting nurses that will no longer 'visit' us because our child isn't able to get insurance ('pre-existing' and 'congenital' often are treated the same by insurance companies).
First we have to GET information -- from healthcare providers - and we need insurance for that!! Then, we need to be able to access services - and we need insurance for that!! Am I the only one seeing the disconnect here?
I think the commitment to education is great, really, but what about EI therapies? What about AFTER school is over with? It's all well and good to say "We'll give you a ton of educational choices." but it does me no good if I can't afford medical coverage for a child who may not SURVIVE until school age without OHS; nor does it benefit me, as the parent of a 30 yo who needs day-to-day assistance to know that she 'could have gone to private school.'
Frankly, this speech was a disappointment on many levels. Not the least of which was the underlying assumption that education was the main concern of parents of children w/ special needs. We want them educated, yes - but HEALTHY children learn better than UNhealthy children. It has to be from the bottom up - healthy children learn better. You can't go 'top-down' -- you can't 'teach a child healthy.'
So far, the M/P ticket has not impressed me on this issue.
That was a great and well thought out response Connor's Mom. I think you make a multitude of good points - especially the insurance point. I think we too often get locked into one particular policy aspect and don't see other aspects that closely relate.
Let me say that I was grading only the speech, not the McCain/Palin stance on special education, which I would give something closer to an D (it is probably only not an F because of the full funding promise in the speech today).
That it lacked in policy specifics is absolutely true, but I think there is a good deal of value in even talking about the topic on a national stage in this way. Republicans in general have not been kind to special education. But, here you have a major Republican figure (and possible 2012 candidate) saying publicly that special education is something that deserves to be cared about and not just ignored, as politicians on both sides of the isle are wont to do. I think this was a potentially tone changing speech on special education. It forces other Republican candidates to think about the issue and it forces other Democratic candidates to have position statements and actually have policy people working on this issue. And, for that, I thought this was a valuable speech ... in addition to the real empathy I think she showed.
I most fervently HOPE is it a 'tone changing' speech for politicians and that it forces them to see how all the individual parts of society (not just the 'pretty ones') interweave to make us all stronger. My FEAR is that the whole speech was simply a self-serving tool to drum up support based on 'gut level' feelings that Gov. Palin is 'just like us.'
I enjoyed your reading your thoughts on the speech, though - it was a refreshing change from the usual rhetoric!
With just less than one week left until we find out who will be our Commander in Chief for the next four years, there are new controversies surrounding both the Democrat and Republican camps. News sources are excited to report that the Republican National Committee spent upwards of $150,000 on new clothes for Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin. While this story has been circulating, inspiring an avalanche of negative publicity, anti-Republican attacks, and the like, I am not rolling with this tide. As a matter of fact, considering that both Palin and Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama have spent large sums of money on clothing, it doesn’t make me disrespect or respect one more than the other. After all, we live in a society where looks, more than anything else, are the prime things that we judge people on. If you have one candidate in designer duds, but somebody else who looks as if they’ve gotten their entire wardrobe from the Wal-Mart clearance rack, the latter won’t be taken seriously. And, besides, look at the attention Sarah Palin is getting with her wardrobe. It doesn't seem like such a bad political move. They spent a lot less on Sarah's wardrobe than Obama spends on TV commercials. In the end, I really hope that the American people will judge the candidates on the issues, and vote for the candidate that supports Americans' right to freedom for personal financial responsibility and the continued rights to no fax payday loans.
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