The Chicago Sun Times’ reporting and exposure of the deplorable special education rule revisions proposed by IL State Superintendent Chris Koch; along with an outpouring of SIX THOUSAND public comments from concerned teacher unions, parents and stakeholders, upheld the educational rights of students with disabilities and special learning needs.
I posted relentlessly on my Special Education Wall of Shame, MI Alliance for Special Education and all over Facebook and Twitter. So goes Illinois and other states would follow, I said. Six-Thousand Public Comments came in and 90-percent in opposition.
These proposed revisions that would have given “local districts authority to determine special education staffing needs,” along with removing special education program sizes; and the 70/30 cap on general education classes, mattered not only to parents, teachers and stakeholders in IL, but to parents, teachers and stakeholders representing the needs of children with IEPs across the U.S.
Now we face the same fight but even worse in Michigan and we need the same intensity shown in Illinois if we are going to stop these despicable revisions proposed by the MI Dept. of Ed, State Superintendent Michael Flanagan and Director of Special Education Eleanor White.
I am as President Obama has said, “Fired Up” and Ready to Go! Are you?
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter….” Dr. Martin Luther King
“Inaction is not an option; The silence is not working….” Marcie Lipsitt
https://www.suntimes.com/25093513-761/state-backs-off-plan-to-change-special-ed-class-sizes.html