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An Open Letter
To Congress
On March 19th
President Bush began the war against Iraq. That same day,
Congress declared war against 6 million United States students
who receive special education services nationwide by introducing
HB 1350, the bill to reauthorize the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act [IDEA].
by Calvin and Tricia Luker,
April 9, 2003
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On March 19th
President Bush began the war against Iraq. That same day,
Congress declared war against 6 million United States students
who receive special education services nationwide by introducing
HB 1350, the bill to reauthorize the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act [IDEA]. Today, the Iraqi regime is
near collapse. And today, after three short weeks, the House
Education and the Workforce Committee stands ready to deal the
death blow to IDEA, and to the educational and integration
dreams of 6 million students. This stealth war against those
students must be stopped.
You and your three Michigan Congressional committee colleagues
represent 225,000 Michigan students who receive IDEA services in
Michigan. They are supported by 400,000+ parents, by thousands
of Michigan education professionals, and by their siblings and
extended family. For Michigan children with disabilities and
their families, there is no more important law than IDEA. The
stealth campaign to ram the IDEA reauthorization through
Congress while the country is preoccupied with Iraq is wrong. In
this undercover rush to eliminate IDEA as we know it:
– Students with disabilities, their families and their advocates
have been excluded from the drafting and legislative process.
Members of Congress are being lied to when they are being told
that students and families support this Bill. We don’t.
– Congress is denying itself the opportunity to learn the truth
about IDEA, and the MILLIONS of success stories it has made
possible for students and families.
HB 1350 is a dangerous bill. Rather than blending IDEA with No
Child Left Behind, it:
– Gives schools full power and authority to leave ALL disabled
children behind, giving little or no protection to those
students.
– Destroys the accountability procedures that have been in place
and have worked for 27 years.
– Promotes discrimination and unfair discipline by giving
schools permission to suspend or expel students without recourse
because they act disabled or in accordance with their
disabilities.
– Puts America back into the mid-1900's, when parents were told
to institutionalize their kids because the public didn’t want to
have them around. HB 1350 for disability students is the
functional equivalent of legislating away the protections
granted to racial minority students by Brown v Board of Ed.
HB 1350 is bad news that would make bad law. Your committee
might be tempted to convince itself that this bill is good for
families. However, if you gave families half a chance to meet
with and speak to you before jamming the bill through, you would
discover the real truth about IDEA and how it has changed lives.
Give yourselves that chance. Don’t kill IDEA under cover of war.
Calvin and Tricia Luker
2007 Guthrie Avenue, Royal Oak, MI 48067-3547
248-542-4128 / 248-544-7223
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