[nfbwatlk] Testimony on SB-6491

[Frye, Dan]

Mike:

Congratulations on your written WSSB testimony. Your statement is
clearly drafted and quite persuasive. I expect it will help (if help can
be had) to protect the school. The affiliate's leadership on this topic
is easy to see after reading your impressive remarks. I'm sorry you
didn't have the opportunity to deliver these remarks in person, but they
are present for the record. Again, congratulations; your efforts do us
proud.

With Kind Regards,

Dan Frye 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbwatlk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Mike Freeman
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 7:42 PM
To: NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Testimony on SB-6491

Fellow listers:

Attached, you will find a fact sheet on the Washington State School for
the Blind and the testimony I would have given at the hearing on
SB-6491, the bill placing the Schools for the Blind and the Deaf under
the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, held bythe
Senate Committee on Early Learning and K-12 Education. I say "would
have" because my amanuensis signed me up to testify for the wrong bill
and by the time the mistake was noticed, the senators had run out of
time. However, I did distribute the testimony in print to all the
committee members and electronically the day before.

Denise and Berl Colley of the Washington Council of the Blind testified
and gave excellent testimony largely based upon the attached fact sheet.
I wish I could have physically testified because (as you will see) I
pointed out what I believe to be fundamental flaws in the legislation.
Oh well. Several members of the deaf community testified. The only
person testifying in favor of SB-6491 was, of course, a member of
Governor Gregoire's staf, kathleen Drew.

Frankly, I believe that the Governor's staff has gotten the idea that
state agencies serving the blind should take care of them rather than
empower them so agency structure doesn't matter.

WE will inform them of their error. please use my testimony to contact
your senators and let them know that the NFB of Washington strongly
opposes the bill. I am attaching a PDF copy of the bill and, rest
assured, it is accessible.

Michael Freeman, President
NFB of Washington