KO is leading off w/ the Palin "special needs policy speech"! As a parent of an autistic boy...

[Brotherjohn]

... I am so glad for this (and KO must read DU).

You know the speech, the one where she spoke of helping develop treatments for autism, then dissed "fruit fly" research... research which helped develop (ahem) treatments for autism.

As someone here on DU was quick to point out earlier today. Whomever that was, THANK YOU! (I have an autistic son)

... more as I'm writing...
OMG, I'm watching her say her plan to help special needs kids is... wait for it... VOUCHERS!!!

Sending your special needs kid to a great private school would be wonderful... except they have no requirement to take them, and likely would not. And would be completely within their rights to expel them for "behavior" whenever they decided they could not handle them.

That kind of policy would have my genius 8-year-old son in an institution by the time he was 20, instead of prepping for graduate or medical school, which is where I hope him to be as he continues to get a good (public) education.

The woman deserves the impeachment and or laughable obscurity she will hopefully get after she is widely viewed as the main reason why McCain loses in an ambarrassing landslide.
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

[medeak]

1. THOSE EVIL FRUIT FLIES! n/t

[Brotherjohn]

2. Them and those evil OVERHEAD PROJECTORS!! (nt)

[medeak]

7. best wishes

for your precious child!

[Brotherjohn]

9. Oh he's doing great; as long as Palin doesn't get elected!

We (not coincidentally) live near Chapel Hill, NC, hotbed of autism research and where some of the fruit fly research linked to autism happens.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[book_worm]

3. Palin is totally unqualified and a disgrace--a laughing stock.

[JenniferJuniper]

4. Guess she didn't take Freshman level Biology

Fruit flies are standards in genetic research, in large part because they reproduce so quickly.

What a moron.

[gatorboy]

5. All I heard from CNN was how Palin showed her softer side.

But that fruit fly comment only proved that she was still her snarky, moronic self.

[PA Democrat]

6. Another parent of a child with autism here, and when she started talking

about school choice, I knew she was grossly uninformed. She seems sadly ignorant of IDEA and has obviously not thought through the concept of vouchers.

How would the amount be determined? One size fits all, even for kids needing the most extensive services? The sad truth is that private schools would pick and choose the kids they accept leaving the kids who have the greatest needs behind in a public school system that has lost the funding necessary to help those very kids.

I would have loved to see if she knew what FAPE was or a NOREP. I think she is as woefully ignorant of special ed as she is of foreign policy.

:grr:

[medeak]

8. wonder what Jenny McCarthy thinks of speech? n/t