Elections and Voting

I voted yesterday despite my hour long wait outside in the cold. I was happy and worried that there were so many concerned citizens. I was happy to see so many people expressing their civic responsibilities. I was worried so many people might be voting for Vouchers in Utah - the whole country was watching our conservative state regarding this issue. I know I was ranting about my annoyance with public education but that doesn't mean I don't think Vouchers are a good idea. By the way John Stossel of 20/20 and Overstock.com both on my boycott list because of their support of Vouchers. (Have to get my post done and I have to sleep - so my elections post is to be continued. By the time I get to the computer for some 1:1 personal posting after work, paying for new brakes YIKES - a whole other post, parent-teacher conferences, dinner, kids to bed ....I am just a bit too tired to finish my posting. Manyana!)

Just wanted to add - Vouchers would be in complete opposition to one of the laws that every special ed. teacher and administrator has burned into their brain - FAPE...Free Appropriate Public Education!!! Private schools by nature are discriminatory whether you give people $500-$3000 to help pay for it...the Private school doesn't' have to accept a child just because the parents can pay the tuition. As a former special ed. teacher I was sickened by the voucher debate and I was happy that all those 60 something % of Utahns who waited in line to cast their vote agreed - Vouchers as proposed in Referendum 1 were a bad idea! I feel strongly as a tax payer, parent, former teacher and Utah voter that no child should be denied FAPE. Vouchers seemed to me to create an even bigger rift in the imperfect and discriminatory world of education. What were people thinking? One more thing, I think full day kindergarten is Appropriate Public Education - that should be FREE.

FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
REQUIREMENTS UNDER SECTION 504 OF THE REHABILITATION ACT OF 1973
U.S. Department of Education
Office for Civil Rights
July 1999
INTRODUCTION
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal funds. Section 504 provides that: "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . ."[1]
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) enforces Section 504 in programs and activities that receive funds from ED. Recipients of these funds include public school districts, institutions of higher education, and other state and local education agencies. ED has published a regulation implementing Section 504 (34 C.F.R. Part 104), and maintains an Office for Civil Rights (OCR), with 12 enforcement offices and a headquarters office in Washington, D.C., to enforce Section 504 and other civil rights laws that pertain to recipients of funds.[2]
FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Section 504 regulation requires a school district to provide a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) to each qualified person with a disability who is in the school district's jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or severity of the person's disability.