[Blindtlk] Land grab is behind effort to close the school for the blind

[T. Joseph Carter]

Link to this op-ed:  http://is.gd/BeML

Land grab is behind effort to close the school for the blind

May 18, 2009

With all due respect to our legislators, and if I may be blunt, 
closing Oregon School for the Blind is a blatant land grab of the 
property and has nothing to do with the education of vision-impaired 
children, other than the convenient fact that it's already zoned for 
educational use.
  
It's disappointing that none of the legislators and state 
administrators involved have the integrity to talk about what this 
is really all about. It's about the very desirable property and 
their own interest in obtaining it for others' use.

This is not about education. It has always been about the property, 
and it's very disingenuous to pretend otherwise, especially at the 
expense of the blind children who will not get these services 
anywhere else if OSB is closed.

They are at OSB now because it has already been decided through 
their IEP process that their own districts can't provide the needed 
services and that OSB is the best place.

There's so much more to this story, but like so much of politics, 
it's about money and power, and this is just so wrong.

— Carlene Benson, Salem