First Things First
There are some key deadlines during the session and one of them happened today. We had until noon to either pass or defeat each base budget bill. HB 1, “Minimum School Program Base Budget,” Rep. Merlynn Newbold, and SB 1, “State Agency and Higher Education Base Budget,” Sen. Lyle Hillyard, each propose base budgets. Neither is a final product. In fact, there is a fair amount of trust involved in passing a public ed budget that does not include funding for new student growth and decreases the weighted pupil unit from $2577 to $2477, assuming and expecting that this is the starting point, and we will work forward to something that truly meets the needs of the students in our state. The same situation holds true with the senate bill.
This afternoon I attended a reception sponsored by the Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities in the Capitol rotunda. I met and spoke with several people in our area who are involved in this arena, either as family members, providers, or clients of the services. Their stories are amazing examples of people enduring through the most difficult circumstances and making a life oftentimes with the most meager assistance from the state. Autistic adult children, deaf/blind support service providers, 18 year stays on the DSPD “wait list,” early intervention for children, three severely disabled children in the same family, work programs that provide opportunities to contribute to our community, and the stories go on. For me, further cuts to these programs that serve the most vulnerable among us are almost unbearable.
As the rotunda filled with children and adults as varied as their disabilities and needs I was reminded of Romania in 1990. My parents served as the first LDS humanitarian missionaries in Romania after the fall of Communism. Their work centered around helping children in the orphanages that were beyond capacity as a result of a disastrous plan by their leader Ceacescu to populate the country in a hurry. They set up the first Special Olympics in that country as well. And this was done as the people there were still reeling from an official policy that literally outlawed people with disabilities. They were not allowed on the streets during the daylight hours. There were no services and in fact no acknowledgement of their existence. There are a lot of things I love about America, including that we strive to help all people achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that we believe they deserve nothing less. Here’s hoping we don’t ever lose sight of that.