Helping the vulnerable
While I applaud the recent class action settlement with the state regarding housing and support benefits for autistic and developmentally disabled adults (BDN 11/25/2014), I encourage legislators and public officials to view this decision as a catalyst to educate themselves on the needs of this very vulnerable segment of the population and to prioritize identifying funding sources to provide the help so badly needed.
As a residential care provider for individuals with mental retardation, autism and developmental disabilities for 30 years, I know the debilitating isolation faced by the disabled and their families when they’re denied services. For the family, it means providing care seven days a week. For an aging or ill parent, it means panic at not knowing who will care for their disabled child when they’re unable to do so. For the individual, it means a lack of normal socialization or the opportunity to develop potential.
Thirty years ago, four individuals with autism came to live with us. Unable to communicate, they wore full-face helmets to protect them when they banged their heads in frustration. We worked closely with the University of Maine to utilize computerized Alpha Talkers to teach them to communicate. The helmets came off. They became active in community activities and were enrolled in school.
Today we provide care for 63 individuals and are readying residences for 15 others. Funding must be made available to support services for the disabled Mainers who continue to wait.
Rena Getchell, CEO
The Getchell Agency
Bangor
Abandon Common Core
The BDN’s Dec. 5 criticism of Gov.Paul LePage’s reversal on Common Core is just an appeal to the sunk-cost fallacy. We have good reasons to abandon Common Core.
Common Core was adopted without proper review. We’re now learning the facts. Common Core was not state-led. It was written by David Coleman and the testing industry under sponsorship by the Gates Foundation. Public school teachers had no significant participation. Race to the Top was designed to entice states to adopt Common Core with money and No Child Left Behind waivers. Common Core was not “internationally benchmarked.”
A recent poll by Ednext found support among teachers dropped from 76 to 46 percent over the past year. A poll of teachers in Tennessee by Vanderbilt University found that 56 percent want to abandon Common Core. Parents are fed up with the onerous testing and data collection. Teachers rightly see the evaluations as worthless and unfair.
No wonder over 20 states have abandoned or are seeking to leave Common Core and the associated testing. No wonder LePage said that he was duped when he signed the 2011 enabling legislation.
The governor should be commended for his decision to act on these flawed standards rather than falling for the flawed logic that we have to stick it out. Better standards exist. We don’t need the testing, data collection, and flawed evaluations.
If we’re committed to public education, we should do the job right and not continue to throw good money (and our children’s education) after bad.
David Lentini
North Berwick
Racism vs. white privilege
With actions in Bangor and all over Maine to say that Black Lives Matter, it is time to say that racism and white privilege are not the same thing. Many people use these two terms, as if they meant the same thing, but they don’t.
Racism is believing certain things are true about about an entire group of people based on race. For example, believing that one race is less honest or more hard-working than another race. White privilege means that if you are white you have automatic advantages. The way police treat you, for example. Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, who is African American, was arrested one night for breaking into his own home even though he had proof that he actually lived there.
If you are white but feel you are not racist, you still have white privilege. Even if you are very poor and white, you still have white privilege. It is not primarily an economic issue.
Of course there is also discrimination against poor people of any color. People who are struggling to feed their families can get very angry if their white privilege is mentioned. Sometimes the truth does make us angry. Check out the relative net worth by race in the U.S. to see the long-term economic effects of white privilege.
The much-needed debate on racism that police violence has sparked is a welcome development. The debate will become clearer if we distinguish the differences between racism and white privilege.
Lisa Savage
Solon