December 19, 2006
Shapiro tries to pin D's in a corner and only points out Republican failure
Senator Florence Shapiro, in an effort to open the door to the destruction of the public schools, has filed a voucher bill to help out families of autistic children. The Democrats and everyone who cares about public schools, which serve the majority of Texas students well, are the real target... Shapiro only wants vouchers. Helping autistic kids isn't the real concern. If it was, they'd do something about the lack of programs in public schools.
And that, my friends, is the crux of the matter. The Republicans, pushed into this by Dr. Hospital Bed, have decided to make autistic kids their trojan horse. This is, of course, not long in following the efforts of another Republican, Smokey Joe Barton, to hold up funding for autism research. Sure, I totally believe Republican's care about autistic children. As much as they care about the poor and farmers.
Basically, it's the legislative equivalent of using a kid as a sheild. Real brave there, Flo.
The reality is that parents can send their kids to another school in a district if they can't get the services the child needs at the school they currently attend. Should those services not exist in the district, then the district HAS TO CREATE THEM.The real issue is that the schools don't have enough money to comply with all the laws and the blame for that lies solidly at the feet of Florence Shapiro
Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, plans to push legislation allowing parents of autistic children to choose the best school setting for their child. "They have a very difficult time in a regular setting in a classroom," said Shapiro, who long has supported voucher systems. "I would like to see a choice program. ... It's what I think we should do for children with autism."
Again, Flo, these programs should exist WITHIN A DISTRICT. So the question becomes, if the programs don't exist, why not? Why aren't we working to correct that instead of finding yet another way to funnel tax dollars into private enterprise?
What amazes me about all this is that it all comes down to money. The Republicans think of public schools as a never ending pit into which money is sent, lost forever. The reality is that money DOES provide a better learning environment. Private schools are extremely expensive for a reason... it costs money to educate children. Maybe if the state upped the average spent per student to what students pay at ESD or St. Marks you'd see much better public schools.
That is what this should be about. Florence, why are you shirking your responsibilities to the kids in Collin County?
Posted by mcblogger at December 19, 2006 01:17 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.mcblogger.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1316
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
