Last week, Steve and I were watching Palin's speech and, truth be told, we were making lots of rude comments throughout the speech. But then she mentioned special education parents and said that we would have a friend in the White House. OK. We shut up. I got a little teary eyed. And then we recovered and shouted more insults at the screen. Steve - "I don't believe it." Me - "What exactly are you going to do for us, honey?"
If we shut up and got teary eyed for a moment, so did a million other parents. It's tough being a special education parent. It's not the kids that are tough. My kid is fantastic - smart, affectionate, funny. I think we should clone him. The tough part is getting services for him. He's been in speech therapy since he's been 2-1/2 years old. Over the years, we've had to deal with incompetence, stupidity, feet dragging, and plain old meanness. And with all that, we've been told to be grateful for what we have, because in this political climate, nobody wants to spend anymore money on special needs kids.*
Friends I've got, Palin. I would like to know what you'll do for us.
I've been getting links all weekend about Palin and special education. One report by Hilzoy who's blogging at CBS news (cool) says that Palin actually slashed funding for schools for special needs kids by 62%. The Weekly Standard says she increased funding. Some are hoping that Palin's special needs son and nephew will make her an advocate.
So, what would Palin do for us? Going back over Palin's record in Alaska isn't very useful. The state is swimming in oil money from the rest of the country. The Democrats in the state house are saying that Palin is taking credit for their programs.
What do special education parents need? They need acceptance and money. The presence of Trig is fantastic. He's an adorable kid and his family is certainly happy to have him around. We need scenes like that on TV everyday.
But special education parents mostly need programs. They need health insurance companies to pay for therapy. They need after school programs. The kids need to sit in first rate classrooms, not tucked away into the broom closet in the back of the school. Kids need accommodations for physical handicaps. They need earlier intervention. Parents need assistance at home. These services require money and ideas. I didn't hear either come out of Palin's mouth during her speech. Republics, who promise to shrink the size of government, don't have a good track record here.
Truly, I'm sick of trying to read the tea leaves and figure out what Palin would do about special education. It would be nice if she got away from the teleprompter and told us what her plans were. I hope it involves more than just dragging Trig around to political events.
Here are Obama's plans, which includes $1 billion in new funding for research and services. McCain's website doesn't mention special education or disabiilty politics.
*I won't blog about our battles with the special education bureaucracy, because one school system has used a parent's blog posts against her in court. Thanks to Wendy for alerting me to that matter.