Sarah Palin Slashed Funding for Special Needs Kids 60% in One Year

Please go read the update to this by clicking this link.

Sarah Palin is proving to be the Mayor of Liarsville and Governor of the State of Deception. Her speech last night was so full of inaccuracies, falsehoods, misleads, and flat out untruths I'm surprised that she thinks the American public is that stupid and I sure hope the GOP is regertting their crazed applause and support of her speech last night.

Do Republicans really want a candidate with a big target on her back? It's like moose manna...and since the gloves are off (thanks Governor) we're happy to strip down that speech and dress it with expertise, using the sort of skill hunter Palin claims to have with big game.

I'm going to take on her self-proclaimed advocacy for special needs children.

I'm not going to focus on the fact that Cindy McCain had to carefully orchestrate the Proper Photo Op setup last night during Palin's speech by slowly shifting special needs baby Trig from the middle daughter to Todd Palin, aka Feeling Very Blessed Daddy (honestly, I give Cindy mad props for always being 100% aware of How Things Look to the Press and Public and How Things Should Look for Maximum Effect and Personal Benefit. Her husband must drive her crazy.). I'm not going to speculate about that or how baby Trig is usually in one of the girls' arms.

Instead I'm going to tell you facts about Palin's record supporting (or not so much) special needs children. I'll use facts, aka hard data.

First, though, for the Republicans in the audience, let me define fact. Unlike Rudy Giuliani's definition---wherein if you don't like the facts, you simply change them to suit you (which sort of makes them fictions, eh, instead of facts)---facts are actually hard and verifiable, indisputable, backed by solid evidence.

The facts here show Governor Palin cut funding for special needs kids dramatically.

In 2007, before Palin assumed her office of governor, the State of Alaska FY2007 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary (this department provides services---not just school but services---for children with severe disabling conditions) includes approved and necessary budget increases to help special needs children. This budget was released in December, on the 15th to be precise, 2006.

In that budget, the budget actuals are (FY = Fiscal Year):

FY 2005 6945.30
FY 2007 Management Plan 7949.30
FY 2007 Governors 8265.30

Palin was elected governor in November of 2006, and assumed her position in January 2007.

When budget time rolled around in 2007, Sarah Palin---self professed advocate for special needs chldren, mother to a special needs child, aunt to a special needs child, and who promised in her acceptance speech last night that she was there for special needs children---slashed the budget. When she said she would be a "friend and advocate in the White House," I guess she just meant in words, not with actual money for needed services.

Here's what the State of Alaska FY2008 Governor’s Operating Budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools Component Budget Summary shows:

FY 2006 7949.30
FY 2007 Management Plan 3173.70
FY 2008 Governor 3156.00

You see right. Under Governor Palin, funds decreased from a planned budget of 8265.30 to 3156.0. That's a 62% decrease. Actual consumed amount went from 7949.3 to 3156.00, where it lingers to this day. That's a 60% decrease.

How many children lost services? Too many.

h/t to CBS News for links to budgets.

Comments

[Robin]

Now that she's an advocate for special needs, maybe she'll become an advocate for a not-abstenence-only sex ed program in the schools too?

It's important, I think, to also point out that although funding was cut, if a child is found eligible, the child should get services. And when budgets are cut, that makes more work on the teachers. And yes, it's absolutely the children that lose out. The ones that are already not on a level playing field.

I'm curious how she's going to defend herself out of this one.

[cynematic]

Suh-weet post. Love that you brought substance back into a fire-and-brimstone-full, but substance-free, speech.

I listened for policy points but, alas, listened in vain.

[The Aitch]

But of course now that she has a special needs child, she will fight for special needs? Of course now that she has a teen pregnancy in her family will she fight for teen pregnancy services? Oh probably. Very little, very late.

[Mark]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this.

As the father of a special needs child, and the husband of a special needs teacher (who I nearly had to pull off the ceiling after Ms. Palin's remark last night) I took great offense to the suggestion that somehow conservatives are going to do something for our children.

Keep on digging. This is the new democracy.

[John J.]

Actually, Obsidian Wings had this in a post too, but after looking at the itemized list, it isn't accurate. The reason it looks like the special school budget looks cut by $5 million is because they split off the largest program, into a separate line item, and increased total spending by about $1 million.

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/07_OMB/budget/EED/index.htm (in 07 the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy was part of the special schools section)

http://gov.state.ak.us/omb/09_omb/budget/EED/index.htm (in 09 it is on its own).

McCain's overall education platform is disgusting, but this line of attack isn't accurate.

[ADDAmy]

nice post! I found similar earlier
anyone know about her cutting funds on teen preg? or about claiming to cut her mayor salary but then hiring a manager to do her job therby really raising the budget? this among other things I have heard but not researched yet

[Steve]

Yes, Mark, a 60% decrease doesn't look quite accurate.

The largest program was moved, probably because it didn't fit into the section "Children with Severe Learning disabilities. The Youth Academy program is oriented at teens who are at risk of dropping out of high school. Looks like they are preparing them for the military to me...

The other 3 programs together, was cut about 5% and represented less than half of the total budget for Special Education.

So, it still looks like Sarah Palin was lying...

[rory]

The original smear is based on funding documents for "Special Schools". What they failed to note, besides for the movement of the Alaska Challenge Academy funding to a separate category, is that Alaska special education funding is also covered under the Department of Education and Early Development Student and School Achievement.

The Department of Early Development Student and School Achievement is responsible for special education for Alaska schools, gifted education, and the Special Education State Personnel Development Grant which provides money to train and recruit special education teachers. These are all state funded mandates per the budget document.

In 2007, the State contributed $5,429,000 in General Funds Receipts to the department.

In the 2009 Governors budget, this was increased to $6,253,800

This was an increase of $824,000 which is a 15% increase in state funding.

Links: http://parentalcation.blogspot.com/2008/09/governor-palin-supports-special-needs.html

[Stephanie]

Who sounds Shrill! Here are the real facts! And if you bothered to use a fact check other than the libral CBS News, you might have gotten it rigt!

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/04/30/35recaps.h27.html

Alaska Legislators Overhaul Funding

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The following offers highlights of the recent legislative session. Precollegiate enrollment figures are based on fall 2007 data reported by state officials for public elementary and secondary schools. The figures for precollegiate education spending do not include federal flow-through funds, unless noted.

Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin and state lawmakers have gone ahead with an overhaul of Alaska’s school funding system that supporters predict will provide much-needed financial help to rural schools and those serving students with disabilities.

The plan, enacted in the recently concluded session of the legislature, is based on recommendations issued by a legislative task force last year. It will phase in a greater flow of money to districts outside of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, over the next five years.

Advocates for rural and remote schools have lobbied for years for more funding, in particular noting the higher fuel, transportation, and other costs associated with providing education in communities scattered across the vast state.

A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. Total K-12 funding will rise to $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion, when transportation, energy, and other state funds are included, according to estimates from the governor’s Office of Management and Budget.

The state also agreed to add another $216 million to fill in shortfalls in its teacher-retirement system, the budget office said.

Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a “historic event,” and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.

Bill Bjork, the president of the Alaska state affiliate of the National Education Association, said that he was pleased with those changes, but that the plan, and the increase in per-pupil spending, “doesn’t do enough, soon enough,” particularly given the state’s strong oil revenues.

By Sean Cavanagh
Vol. 27, Issue 35, Page 17

The Budget
http://gov.state.ak.us/omb/09_omb/budget/EED/

[John J.]

Stephanie, unless you are an economist or throw everything in spreadsheets and spend days shifting the money around, you won't notice that these numbers look so drastic because they reclassified entire programs. It took me five or six re-readings of the budget to figure out exactly how much money was moved where. This wasn't a matter of liberals trying to bash her; this was a case of the numbers seeming to say something they didn't.

If you want to talk about fact-checking, maybe you should get out a red pen (you'll need some ink refills) and go through the Republican speeches over the past two nights.

[Stephanie]

I am only the mother of two children with Autism, a parent advocate employeed by my school district to help families navigate special education. I serve on the board of my states Parent Inforamtion Center for Children with Disabilities and I work sith a very active PTA board who studies state and local educations budgets very closely. And oh, by the way, I do have a degree in accounting!

If you look at the 2007 budget http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/07_OMB/budget/EED/comp2735.pdf the budget for the school year was $8,265,300 and this number included the Alaskan Challenged Youth Academy.

If you look at the 2008 budget http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/08_OMB/budget/Enacted/HB_95_bill.pdf (page 13)

the budget is $3,156,000, but the Alaskan Challenged Youth Academy is a seperate line item. It's budget is $5,709,000 for a grand total of $8,865,000.
This is a 6.25% increase, not a decrease!

If you look at the 2009 budget
http://www.gov.state.ak.us/omb/09_omb/budget/bills/HB310_with_vetoes.pdf (page 13)

Again if you add the two numbers together you get a total of $9,214,900 and this year it is a 3.94% increase.

Stephanie

[Ginger Taylor]

Education Week's review of Sarah Palin.

She DID raise special ed budgets and even the teacher's union liked her because “She understands many of the issues that are important to educators in Alaska," Ms. Angaiak said. "She pushed fairly hard on funding, and we were pleased she was pushing.”:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/08/29/03palin.h28.html

Sarah Palin supportive of state’s performance-pay plan.
By Sean Cavanagh and Alyson Klein

In tapping Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain has selected an elected official who has supported increased funding for education across her rural, frontier state and voiced support for school-choice programs that appeal to many conservatives.

A mother of five children, Ms. Palin, 44, vaults onto the national stage as the vice presidential nominee from relative obscurity, at least within the political and education circles of the nation’s capital.

The Republican governor was elected to that post less than two years ago. Before that, she was the mayor of Wasilla, a suburb of Anchorage, which is the state’s largest city.

Members of education organizations in Alaska generally spoke favorably about Ms. Palin’s record on school issues since she took office in January of 2007. The governor has become a popular figure among the 13,000 members of the Alaska National Education Association, said Barbara Angaiak, president of the state affiliate of the National Education Association.

The union official credited Ms. Palin for having backed a legislative proposal, which became law this year, that overhauled the state’s school funding system. That plan brought more money to the state’s many rural and remote school districts and raised spending for students with special needs. ("Alaska Legislators Overhaul Funding," April 30, 2008.)

The measure raised per-pupil funding by $100, to $5,480, and brought the state’s total K-12 budget to $1.2 billion.

“She understands many of the issues that are important to educators in Alaska," Ms. Angaiak said. "She pushed fairly hard on funding, and we were pleased she was pushing.”
Supports Performance Pay

Alaska has one of the nation’s most unusual performance-incentive programs, which rewards school employees with payments for gains in student achievement. The state-run program is distinct in that it includes many different kinds of employees, from administrators and teachers to custodians and secretaries, offering them payments for increased student performance at their school.

The program was initially signed into law by the previous governor, Republican Frank H. Murkowski, as a three-year pilot program, though Ms. Palin has been supportive of it, said Eric Fry, a spokesman for the state’s department of education and early development.

Ms. Palin campaigned as a supporter of school-choice programs, though a number of Alaska education observers said they could not cite examples of her having shepherded policies in that area into law. Alaska, partly because it has so many rural schools scattered across formidable terrain, has a well-established tradition of allowing homeschool programs, which Ms. Palin has supported, Mr. Fry noted.

“There is awesome potential to improve education, respect good teachers, and embrace choice for parents,” Ms. Palin told lawmakers in her state-of-the-state address earlier this year. “This potential will prime Alaska to compete in a global economy that is so competitive it will blow us away if we are not prepared.”
Supports Flexibility on NCLB

Ms. Palin has also become known for juggling her duties as Alaska’s chief executive with those of a parent. Well into her term as governor, she announced that she was pregnant, and in April, she gave birth to a son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Down syndrome. The governor was reportedly back at work days after the boy was born. She and her husband, Todd, have four other children.

Since taking office, Ms. Palin has been generally supportive of the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act, though she has also backed Alaska’s efforts to gain more flexibility under the federal law, a number of observers said. Alaska officials have said that meeting the law's mandates has been difficult, particularly in the state's more remote districts.

The Alaska governor’s experience with the NCLB law appeared to reflect that of a particular constituency of policymakers on education, said Michael J. Petrilli, the vice president for national programs and policy at the Washington office of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

“Her instincts are going to come from rural America,” Mr. Petrilli said. “It’s hard to find a state that is less of a fit for No Child Left Behind” than Alaska, he added.

The relatively short amount of time Ms. Palin has spent in office made it difficult to predict the education views she would bring to a McCain administration, said Tom Toch, a co-director of Education Sector, a Washington think tank. But he suspected that Ms. Palin’s policy-shaping role on school issues would be a small one.

“There’s not much to suggest that she would be likely to put forward any serious discussion of school reform issues,” Mr. Toch said. Generally speaking, on education, “there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot there.”

Ms. Palin’s rise to the governor’s position was sudden. After serving as mayor of Wasilla, she easily defeated then-Gov. Murkowski, in the 2006 Republican primary, before beating Democrat Tony Knowles, himself a former Alaska governor, in the general election.

As a candidate, Ms. Palin reportedly did weigh in on an issue that has stoked enormous controversy, not to mention legal action, in states and school districts. During a televised debates for governor, she said she thought creationism, the Biblically based view that God created the universe, should be taught alongside evolution in public classrooms, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Such proposals are strongly opposed by the vast majority of scientists, who say so-called alternatives to evolution are inherently unscientific, and mislead students.

“Teach both,” Ms. Palin was quoted as saying during the debate. “You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is important, and I am a proponent of teaching both.”

Ms. Palin told the newspaper at the time, however, that she would not push to add creationist views to the state school curriculum. Mr. Fry said the governor had not supported any such proposal during her time in office.

Staff writers Linda Jacobson and Christina Samuels contributed to this report.

[Angela]

She's superficial...and McCain has sold his soul to get into the White House

here is a fellow pow who doesn't believe McCain is fit to be our President and he has know McCain since the academy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjsEs46C70

[Karla]

adventuresinautism.com

Go there if you are actually interested in the facts about Sarah Palin and the funding of special needs programs in the state of Alaska. She actually increased funding 75% from 2007 to 2008. The decrease you're talking about was a program that was slashed in the bill you mention but subsequently added on to another bill for the same budget year. Please stop with these baseless attacks. I am so sorry to see women attacking women because THIS woman does not worship at the altar of abortion. The hysteria from the left is unbelievable and so one-sided. I don't intend to vote for Barack Obama but I have to say he gave an outstanding acceptance speech. There are no kind words whatsoever from the democrats for either John or Sarah. The panic I see in the supporters of Obama is getting more and more obvious and it is going to cause his campaign to self-destruct. How sad!

[Jon Zahm]

Here is the real truth. Please stop smearing this good and honest woman. As special needs parents of three boys with epilepsy, my wife and I are voting for the McCain/Palin ticket. No special needs parent should support abortion rights champions Obama and Biden. 90% of Down's Syndrome babies are killed in the womb thanks to Roe v. Wade.

Newest Palin Smear: She Cut Special Needs Budget
I just watched CNN's Soledad O'Brien sandbag former White House Communications Director Nicole Wallace by asking her how Sarah Palin can claim to be a defender of special needs children when she cut the budget for that Alaska office by 62 percent. Wallace wasn't familiar with the charge -- which isn't surprising, since it's only being made on DailyKos and another liberal site. (Tip for Ms. O'Brien: DailyKos is not a reliable news site.)

This charge is based on looking at the budget for Alaska's Special Education Service Agency for 2007-2009. In fact, the December 2006 budget document that they cite would have been prepared by the outgoing administration -- that of Republican Frank Murkowski, whom Palin defeated.

What's gone unmentioned is that the Palin signed into law a dramatic reform of the state's education financing system that equalizes aid to rural and urban districts, while significantly increasing funding for special needs students. From the publication Education Week:

Gov. Sarah Palin and state lawmakers have gone ahead with an overhaul of Alaska’s school funding system that supporters predict will provide much-needed financial help to rural schools and those serving students with disabilities.

The plan, enacted in the recently concluded session of the legislature, is based on recommendations issued by a legislative task force last year. It will phase in a greater flow of money to districts outside of Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, over the next five years.

Advocates for rural and remote schools have lobbied for years for more funding, in particular noting the higher fuel, transportation, and other costs associated with providing education in communities scattered across the vast state.

A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

So the Netroots and CNN allege that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent, by crediting her with the budget proposed by a political opponent. And the truth is that rather than a 62 percent cut, she's actually increasing special needs funding by 175 percent.

It's no wonder a majority of Americans think the media is trying to hurt Palin.

Posted by Brian Faughnan on September 4, 2008 11:21 AM | Permalink