Palin advocates for special needs funds
Posted: Friday, October 24, 2008 1:20 PM by Carrie Dann
Filed Under:
Sarah Palin
From NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger
PITTSBURGH -- In her first policy address since joining the Republican ticket,
Sarah Palin called for parents of special needs children to use federal funding to pick the school of their choice, and she suggested that
Obama would raise taxes on federal trusts designed to pay for medical and education costs for disabled children.
VIDEO: Sarah Palin tells a Pennsylvania audience that Barack Obama's tax proposals will have "serious and harmful consequences" on families of special needs children, due to his "ideological commitment to higher taxes."
“In a
McCain/Palin administration, we’re gonna put the educational choices for special needs children in the right hands, in the hands of the parents and the good responsible caretakers,” she said. “Under reforms that I will lead as vice president, the parents and caretakers of children with physical or mental disabilities will be able to send that boy or girl to the school of their choice, public or private.”
Palin also called for full federal funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, phasing in an additional $15 billion in funding over five years. She said funds could be found by reprioritizing the federal budget and ending earmarks.
Palin wrapped the policy proposal in a personal appeal Friday, speaking of her six month old son, Trig, who has Down Syndrome, and her nephew, Karcher, who is autistic, and placing herself as an advocate for families with children with special needs.
And, she added, those families are concerned about the tax policies of her opponent.
“They fear that Sen. Obama’s tax increase will have serious and harmful consequences,” she said. “And they’re right because the burden that his plan would pose upon these families is just one more example of how many plans can be disrupted and how many futures can be placed at risk and how many people can suffer when the power to tax is misused.”
Palin said Obama would raise taxes on federal trusts that families establish to pay for medical and educational costs for children with physical or mental disabilities.
“We’ll protect the savings and the earnings of American families and we’ll allow more of that investment and the prioritization via our own families to make the difference here,” Palin said.
Palin delivered the remarks at an airport hotel ballroom, filled with families with children with special needs. Throughout the speech, several babies could be heard and at least one was running around the aisles and behind the seats. At the beginning of her remarks, Palin said not to worry about the fussy children. “That’s the sound of life,” she said.
Palin proposes allowing parents to use federal funding from IDEA to choose a school for their special needs child, including private and religious schools. If elected, the administration would direct the Department of Education to augment the rules, allowing federal funds to follow children from one school to another, if the state funding does the same.
McCain senior policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the plan would not mandate private or parochial schools to accommodate children with special needs. And, Palin said, the question of school choice for special needs children should not be tied down by the larger voucher question.
“Like John McCain, I’m a believer in providing more school choice for families. And the responsibility for the welfare of children rests ultimately with mothers and fathers, and the power to choose should be theirs as well,” she said. “But this larger debate of public policy should not be permitted to hinder the progress of special needs students.”
Under IDEA, signed by President Ford in 1975, the federal government was responsible for 40 percent of special needs education. But that mandate has never been met. Palin’s proposal would increase the federal commitment by $3 billion a year over five years, for an eventual total of $26 billion.
Palin’s proposal also includes improved assistance for families with infants and toddlers with special needs and better services to students with disabilities in high schools and community colleges.
Palin has said at campaign rallies that she expects to focus on families with special needs as vice president, along with energy independence and government reform. Campaign officials suggested Friday that the project was a priority for her, and would therefore be exempted from a government freeze on domestic discretionary spending, which she and McCain have advocated for on the campaign trail.
“We think this is important enough for the next vice president to stand up and talk about,” Holtz-Eakin said. “If we think it’s important enough to stand up and talk about, we ought to fund it.”
