Palin's speech about kids with disabilities

Did Palin's speech last Friday in Pittsburgh meet my low expectations for details on actual concerns of people with disabilities?

Palin reiterated her convention announcement that, if elected, "families and caregivers of special-needs children all across this country" would have a "friend and advocate in the White House." That's sweet, and needed. She might have said she'd be a friend and advocate to actual disabled people too.

She did reference both the IDEA and IEPs, though she never mentioned the ADA -- the premier disability civil rights law that secures not just friendship and advocacy, but citizenship rights. She pledged to create a sort of voucher program that would allow federal funding for children with physical and developmental disabilities to be used at either public or private schools the parents choose.

The catch? There are several: Portable federal funding will only apply where state funds are deemed portable as well. And no private or parochial school will be required to accept or accommodate these students, which is already a serious problem with educational voucher programs.

She also declared that a McCain-Palin administration would fully fund the IDEA, seriously underfunded now for decades. That would be welcome, except she made clear that availability of this funding relies completely on cutting it from earmarks elsewhere. So, once your state passes education funding reforms designed to deregulate the public school system and her administration proposes a federal budget that moves earmark funding to IDEA and Congress approves it, then parents can look for a private school that will accommodate their disabled child, though those schools will not be required to make the effort.

Palin briefly mentioned the high "medical and other costs" concerning parents of disabled kids, but, predictably, didn't mention how a McCain-Palin administration refuses to support the Community Choice Act and would limit insurance opportunities for kids (and adults) with pre-existing conditions through their health care plan.

Palin also falsely claimed that an Obama administration would tax the special needs trusts parents set up to protect and support their disabled children into the future. That's not true, as independant estate planners (and the Obama campaign) have clarified. (h/t Patricia E. Bauer)

In contrast, as stated on a dedicated page at their website (something the McCain-Palin site lacks), the Obama-Biden administration has a four-point plan to support disabled people:

1) provide educational opportunities (fully funding the IDEA -- yes, before McCain took on Palin as a running mate Obama had pledged to do this),

2) end discrimination and promote equal opportunity (this means funding the offices already pledged with the task, like the EEOC, where there's an astounding backlog of disability discrimination complaints),

3) increase the employment rate (Obama mentions that insuring federal job opportunities for the disabled includes fully accessible information technology, while McCain claims he can't use a computer himself because of his disabilities), and

4) support independent, community living (including the Community Choice Act).

Read the detailed .pdf of the Obama-Biden commitment.
Read Palin's speech yourself at the McCain-Palin campaign site.