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Palin wants more funding for special-needs kids

By DAN NEPHIN – 5 hours ago

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin pledged Friday to shift billions of dollars to programs for children with special needs and assured their families they will have a friend in the White House if she is elected.

Palin herself has a special-needs child, a son born six months ago with Down syndrome. She did not cite which federal programs might be called on to give up [color="Red"]$45 billion over five years to meet her proposal to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

"We've got a $3 trillion budget, and Congress spends some $18 billion a year on earmarks for political pet projects," Palin told an audience that included families with special-needs children and service providers. "That's more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA. And where does a lot of that earmark money end up? It goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good."

However, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said that ending the use of earmarks — special funding requests placed into bills by lawmakers for back-home projects — would be a tool for balancing the budget.

Palin has criticized earmarks as a vice presidential candidate, but as governor she has requested $750 million in such special funding.

Palin said she has long been an advocate for special-needs children and their families and called the mission to advocate for them from the vice president's office "especially close to my heart."

"The law requires our public schools to [color="Red"]serve children with special needs, but often the results fall far short of the service they need," she said. "Even worse, parents are left with no other options, except for the few families that can afford private instruction or therapy."

Palin said she would work to strengthen the National Institutes of Health so it can provide families of special-needs children with more information.

"Early identification of a cognitive or other disorder, especially autism, can make a life-changing difference," she said.

Programs and community centers that focus on school-age children should also focus on infants and toddlers, she said.

In criticism aimed at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Palin said [color="Red"]the Democrat's tax plan [color="Red"]would raise taxes on special-needs [color="Red"]trusts that provide for long-term care. Obama's campaign called the charge false.

"Sen. Obama has consistently been clear that he would not increase taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year," spokesman Sean Smith said in a statement.

In Palin's two years as governor, spending for Alaska's Health and Social Services Department remained flat during her first year and then rose 6 percent the second year. State funding for disabled children in her second year included $500,000 for diagnostic services for autistic children, $250,000 to train workers in providing early intervention for them, and a Palin-backed increase in education funding for severely disabled students that raised the level from $26,900 to $49,300 per student.

Palin cut in half the $550,000 capital request for an indoor training facility for Special Olympics Alaska, the local arm of the international nonprofit organization.

Palin told Denver TV station KUSA on Monday that she opposed a state ballot initiative designed to help provide services to the developmentally disabled by raising the sales tax 1 cent on every $10 spent over the next two years.

"There's got to be an alternative to raising taxes," she told KUSA. "It's a matter of [color="Red"]prioritizing the dollars that are already there in government."

Palin later flew to Springfield, Mo., to campaign in Republican-heavy southwest Missouri.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h21ZbzgPbTVRftcJPT5vkHkonY5QD9412GGG2
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