[nfbwatlk] Fw: Fw: Disturbing Article from Oregon

[Mike Freeman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marlaina Lieberg" <1guidedog at gmail.com>
To: <wcb-l at wcbinfo.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 9:50 PM
Subject: [Wcb-l] Fw: Disturbing Article from Oregon


Very disturbing news:


----- Original Message ----- 
Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2009 9:47 PM
Subject: Disturbing Article from Oregon


House panel votes to shut Oregon School for the Blind The
education committee decides visually impaired students should be
taught in their home communities
Budget - Education committee decides blind students should attend
local schools The Oregon School for the Blind should close in
August and all blind and visually impaired students should be
educated in their home communities, the House Education Committee
decided Friday. The vote was 8-2, with all Democrats and half the
committee's Republicans voting yes to closing the 135-year-old
Salem school, which currently enrolls 32 students. Only Kim
Thatcher, R-Keizer, and Ron Mauer, R-Grants Pass, voted no. The
closure proposal now heads to the Ways & Means Committee for a
vote. Lawmakers on the education committee heard long hours of
passionate testimony from students at the school, their parents
and their teachers about how poorly students were served in local
schools and how much progress they have made at the School for the
Blind. The school, which boards students during the week, spends
more than $125,000 per student each year. Blind and visually
impaired students told horror stories of how they were treated in
their local schools. Along with other members of the committee,
House Education Chairwoman Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, who has
spearheaded the drive to close the school, called those cases
"appalling," "completely unacceptable" and "a violation of state
and federal law." But she and other committee members said they
believe students can and will be well-served in their communities.
The roughly $3 million a year the state spends to run the school
will be redirected to improve and expand services for blind and
visually impaired students in local schools.
Saturday, April 11, 2009 
The Oregonian
- Education committee decides blind students should attend local
schools 

The Oregon School for the Blind should close in August and all
blind and visually impaired students should be educated in their
home communities, the House Education Committee decided Friday. 

The vote was 8-2, with all Democrats and half the committee's
Republicans voting yes to closing the 135-year-old Salem school,
which currently enrolls 32 students. Only Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer,
and Ron Mauer, R-Grants Pass, voted no. The closure proposal now
heads to the Ways & Means Committee for a vote. 




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