US Education Budget Cuts For Gally & NTID

Betsy DeVos' Education Department budget cuts to Special Olympics, Gallaudet University and National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

WASHINGTON -- Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday defended deep cuts to programs meant to help students and others, including eliminating $18 million to support Special Olympics, while urging Congress to spend millions more on charter schools.

"We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to invest in systems and policies that are not yielding better results," DeVos said in prepared testimony before a House subcommittee considering the Department of Education's budget request for the next fiscal year.

It was the first time that DeVos, a wealthy former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman and school choice advocate, had been called before a Democratic-led panel in the U.S. House to explain President Donald Trump's spending priorities.

While proposing to add $60 million more to charter school funding and create a tax credit for individual and companies that donate to scholarships for private schools, DeVos' budget proposal would still cut more than $7 billion from the Education Department, about 10 percent of its current budget. President Trump proposed a $4.7 trillion overall budget this month with an annual deficit expected to run about $1 trillion.

It calls for eliminating billions in grants to improve student achievement by reducing class sizes and funding professional development for teachers as well as cutting funds dedicated to increasing the use of technology in schools and improving school conditions. In many cases, DeVos said the purpose of the grants has been found to be redundant or ineffective.

In the case of the $17.6 million cut to help fund the Special Olympics, a program designed to help children and adults with disabilities, DeVos suggested it is better supported by philanthropy and added, "We had to make some difficult decisions with this budget."

"Do you know how many kids are going to be affected by that cut?" asked U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, while also pointing out a recent report by a nonprofit group that concluded the U.S. government has spent as much as $1 billion on charter schools that never opened or they closed because of mismanagement or other reasons.

@BetsyDeVosED is making serious cuts to special education programs Americans rely on like the Special Olympics, special education grants to states, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, & Gallaudet University.

@MarleeMatlin - Please RT. The benefits of Special Olympics, which I have seen first hand as volunteer are IMMEASURABLE. DeVos proposal to cut their funding will adversely affect thousands with developmental disabilities. Don't let this happen! I support SpecialOlympics.

DeVos has been a longtime supporter of charter schools - independently run, publicly funded schools that typically aren't as closely regulated as traditional schools - and school choice for public school students, arguing that parents should be able to put their children into the schools of their choice and that funding should follow them.

Many public school supporters have argued that government support of charter schools and private schools can undermine traditional schools, which educate most students.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who is chairwoman of the subcommittee that held the hearing, called the budget proposal "cruel and reckless," saying it "will hurt the middle class and low-income families that most need our help."

"How can you support this budget? I mean that genuinely," she said. "As secretary of the Department of Education, how can you support, even boast, about taking 10 percent away from our teachers and students?"

It's unlikely that any of the major reductions, or any major proposals to boost school choice, are headed towards passage, however. Even with the Republican in the majority in the U.S. House the last two years, most of DeVos' strongest proposals for cuts or spending were turned back. Now with Democrats in the majority, they are far less likely to gain traction.

SOURCE - USA TODAY

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Robert Panara - First Deaf To Be On US Stamp

Robert Panara, became the first National Institute for the Deaf faculty member to be featured on a United States postage stamp.

ROCHESTER, New York -- Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Robert Panara, who was the first Deaf faculty member at Rochester Institute of Technology's National Institute for the Deaf, knew no limits for what a Deaf person could accomplish.

As a tribute to his achievements, Panara will be honored on a new U.S. postage stamp showing him signing the word "respect."

Robert Panara, A Profile. Video Credit: DCMP.

Panara, who died in 2014 at age 94, joined the NTID faculty in 1967 and for two decades was an inspirational and innovative educator, as he had been previously at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

"During his 40-year teaching career, Panara inspired generations of students with his powerful use of American Sign Language," said the Postal Service, in its announcement Tuesday that the new stamp featuring Panara will be part of the Distinguished Americans series.

The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler, art director for the Postal Service, and based on an image taken by RIT/NTID photographer Mark Benjamin.

Panara's son, John, who is an English instructor at NTID, sent an email to the NTID community Tuesday saying that the "picture on the stamp is one that you certainly are familiar with, for it has been seen often around campus the last few years, in offices and on hallway walls."

Benjamin's photograph of his father signing the word "respect," John Panara added, is a "theme that will 'ring out loud and free' (to borrow a line from my dad's famous poem) every time the stamp is placed on an envelope!"

John Panara said that when he received an email a year ago telling him that the Postal Service's Stamp Advisory Committee had recommended the issuance of a stamp of his father, he read the email over and over again to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

Harry Lang, a professor emeritus at NTID and author of Teaching from the Heart and Soul: The Robert F. Panara Story, posted on Facebook: "What a nice Thanksgiving present! Bob is certainly looking down with his famous smile right now."

Lang, who was an adviser to the Postal Service on the stamp, noted in the foreword to his biography that the senior Panara was a poet, author, lecturer and theater aficionado.

Panara, Lang wrote, was largely self-educated at a time accommodations were not available for Deaf children.

"He was also among the first wave of Deaf scholars in the twentieth century, and a pioneer in the field of Deaf Studies," Lang noted.

Panara's poem "On His Deafness," written in 1946, has been reprinted many times and won first prize in the World of Poetry contest in 1988. Lang, in his biography of Panara, said the poem is about "how Deaf people can 'hear' with an 'inner ear' of imagination." ... Read The Full Story - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

Rochester's Deaf Population Among Largest Per Capita In United States

New York's Deaf population among largest per capital in United States.

ROCHESTER, New York -- Rochester has more Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents per capita than the national average and a larger Deaf population than many other similarly sized cities, a new report out of Rochester Institute of Technology has found.

Rochester’s sizable Deaf community has often been assumed but was never quantified until the report, written by Gerard Walter and Richard Dirmyer from RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

The study found other cities have more total Deaf residents per capita, but among college and working aged people, Rochester has one of the largest populations in the country. In particular, the study found Rochester has far and away the highest percentage of Deaf residents enrolled in secondary education, likely driven by NTID.

“Often times it’s difficult to understand how many people are really in the community,” said Thomas Pearson, director of the National Center for Deaf Health Research at the University of Rochester. “This has been a real challenge for anyone interested in the field.”

Using American Community Survey data, Walter and Dirmyer found there are 43,000 Deaf or Hard of Hearing residents in the Rochester metro area, about 3.7 percent of the population. That’s higher than the national average, which is 3.5 percent.

Rochester doesn’t have the highest population per capita as is often suggested, however. The report only looked at a handful of cities, but found 3.9 percent of Pittsburgh’s population is Deaf or Hard of Hearing. The authors of the report attribute that to more elderly residents living in Pittsburgh than in Rochester, and the onset of age-related deafness... Read The Full Story.

Related News:
Wham ABC: Read The Full Story on ABC News.
RIT-NTID: https://ntid.rit.edu/news/rochester-areas-deaf-population-better-defined.
RocWiki blog: http://rocwiki.org/deaf_community.

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'Silent' Erin Lafave All American Athlete

'Silent" A look into the life of Erin Lafave, a member of the RIT Track and Field team and competitor in the Deaf Olympics.

Deaf biography Erin LaFave has been called Rochester Institute for the Deaf's top runner the Michigan resident won the 800m and finished second in the 1500m and 5000m for the 2007 Pan American Games for the Deaf.

Erin LaFave of the RIT cross country team, will represent the university at the 2011 NCAA Cross Country Championship:

LaFave was an All-American athlete at Lahser High School in Bloomington Hills, Mich. and competed in the Deaflympics in Taiwan in 2009. She joined the RIT cross country team her first year, but decided to take the next two years off as she switched majors and focused on her academics.

Stevens says it is rare for athletes to return once they have left the team, but LaFave had the desire and motivation to fulfill the needed requirements to rejoin the team... Read The Full Story on NTID-RIT News.