FACT: This smear was prominently featured at the Huffington Post website, in an article entitled "Palin Slashed "Special Needs" Funding In Alaska." It was also mentioned on CNN on Sept. 4, by Soledad O'Brien.
Along with the "Sarah Palin slashed funding for teen moms" smear, this one supposedly packs a delightful smack of irony: Sarah Palin has a special needs child. Har-dee-har-har. Those heartless Republican bastards.
Unfortunately for Palin-haters, this smear (like the "teen moms" scare story) is the result of poor reading comprehension. Gov. Palin did approve a funding decrease for the "Special Schools" budget, but in Alaska, the "special schools" budget item is simply a fund for various special school projects around the state, including the Alaska Military Youth Academy; it is not the same as the state's "Special Needs" school budget.
FactCheck.org reports:
According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. In particular, it would increase spending for certain special needs students that Alaska calls "intensive needs" (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.
Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs [the intensive needs group] to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. ...
Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a "historic event," and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.According to Eddy Jeans at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, funding for special needs and intensive needs students has increased every year since Palin entered office, from a total of $203 million in 2006 to a projected $276 million in 2009.
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