Nurse Practitioner Schools

Sarah Palin’s Stand on Special Education

The last presidential election is one that America will not forget in a hurry for many reasons. But perhaps one of the most interesting was the surprising rise from relative obscurity of Sarah Palin to become the choice of the Republican nominee for vice president. Sarah Palin and her small town aura, complete with the working class husband, five children, one pregnant and one with Down’s syndrome, have, for better or worse, drawn vast media attention. And because of her determination to carry to term the baby diagnosed with a disability that’s both mental and physical, there’s been added speculation as to how she would deal with the issue of special education. 

In her inaugural address to the nation and acceptance speech as vice president nominee delivered at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Palin spoke of her family, with a special mention reserved for Trig, her five-month-old son who was born with Down’s syndrome. She also pledged to make America a better place for families with children with special needs. So far, so good!

But then the Washington Post broke a story of how the VP nominee, during her gubernatorial tenure in Alaska, Palin reduced funding for a teen pregnancy program and that she slashed the budget for Alaska’s Special Education Service Agency by 62 percent for the years 2007-2009, and all hell broke loose. With comments and criticisms pouring in from all quarters, the erstwhile governor’s supporters were kept working full time trying to undo the damage caused by this inflammatory article. The truth, as it was revealed later, is that Palin showed that she was rooting for the underdog by signing into a law an educational reform that allocates equal aid to rural and urban districts and also increases funding for special needs students. 

The Post’s blunder does not end there – further reparations and rebuttals from the VP nominee’s camp had these points to add; Alaska’s special education management budget for the financial year 07 included four programs – Special Education Service Agency (SESA), a psychiatric program, a school for the deaf and the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy. FY 08 saw three of the programs still under the umbrella of the same budget while the Alaska Challenge Youth Program was moved out of the special education program and made into a standalone program of its own with a funding increase of $2.8 million. Critics who were sloppy in doing their homework saw just the drop in the budget for the special education program and were double quick to jump on what they thought was a black mark against Palin and her open statement to support special needs children. 

While her recent resignation from the gubernatorial post in Alaska has many condemning Palin to political obscurity, for those that are interested in the issues surrounding Special Education, Sarah Palin remains an interesting candidate, whether one agrees with her policies or not.