Good Morning, Commissioner Edelblut, Senators Abbas and Lang,
I am writing to you about the Special Education shortfalls in our state. As an older special needs mom with strong connections to the NH disability community and after reading the following article and getting a message from my Senator, Daryl Abbas, I have some major concerns.
First, the school districts are overspending and honestly, not doing a great job educating our typical kids, never mind our special needs kiddos. I was able to homeschool and privately educate my two special needs sons and save Pelham School District millions of dollars. (please see my Union Leader Op Ed attached). Taking money away from the EFA program and giving it to our already bloated school district budgets makes no sense.
Secondly, disability advocacy organizations like Granite State Independent Living are opposing HB 237 which would prohibit the use of special education funds on students NOT receiving special education services. Yup, you heard that correctly. The Disability advocates in our state want special ed funds to be used for typical students. Why? To What End? Their advocacy email said its because “GSIL is concerned that this could erode special education services as a whole and negatively impact the ability of schools to integrate students receiving special education services with their peers.” Hmmm, that’s like saying we want Social Security to be used for people who are not disabled and under 65 because the disability/elderly community is concerned that restricting funds from able-bodied young people would negatively impact them…It makes absolutely no sense at all.
It seems like school districts and disability advocates think there is a seemingly endless stream of tax dollars. It’s bad enough that we increased the age for special ed students to be in school from 21 to 22. This puts an additional year of burden on the taxpayers. I know I sound politically incorrect here, but could someone please tell me the benefit to the student of keeping them in school an extra year? Will they learn a skill, a trade, or something special in that extra year to make their transition to adult life easier? I have my doubts. My daughter Lydia works for Work Opportunities Unlimited and Voc Rehab, so she does this work for our disability community every day.
Please give this the due diligence it deserves. The State shouldn’t be acting like a negligent parent who just gives their kids whatever they want. Especially considering the horrid Sununu youth detention center scandal and what that will cost taxpayers. The State needs to hold School Districts accountable and tell them to tighten their purse strings. Any surplus our State might have should either be given back to the taxpayers or given to the YDC victims. And the fact that this perpetual abuse was allowed to happen over the course of many years and hundreds of victims proves just how negligent the State actually is. How are we holding not only the perpetrators but the derelict state officials responsible?
We want to thank Lori Safford for op-ed. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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