I know this is my second post of the day, but the first one, change is good, was the final draft of some ideas I’d been working on for a few days.  This, in my opinion, is breaking news.

Factchecking the Anne Kilkenny e-mail

The defamatory e-mail about Alaska governor and VP hopeful, Sarah Palin, that has been circulating in the blog-o-sphere and mainstream media, is officially political propaganda. Many of the points have been disproven on factcheck.org.  A quote:

According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislationin March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. It would increase spending on what Alaska calls “intensive needs” students (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin’s original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.

Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. …

Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a “historic event,” and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.

 

I’ll give you the link for the full article at the bottom of this post. This particular reference in a statement from Kilkenny’s e-mail was bunk–Palin made no attempt to cut funding to special needs children in Alaska.  But the ramifications of when she made her decision to support this legislature, and possibly why are things we need to find out about RIGHT NOW, before we embrace this half of the Republican ticket. 

Why am I concerned? From the above quote, pull out some important information: “According to an April 2008 article…Palin signed legislation in March 2008…”. Think about what you know to be true in Palin’s life: She has a young son with Down’s Syndrome…who was born in April 2008.  Think about what you know to be true in Obstetrics: Modern medicine can tell you much about a fetus in the last trimester (take a second to think about that).

Obviously, by “covertly” signing this into Alaska’s budget now, her new awareness about children with disabilities gave her some perspective. A mother’s perspective usually benefits more than just her children, especially a mother with some clout.  So, the new Alaskan legislation is brilliant and wicked at the same time. Wicked? Absolutely, because five years down the road, when her son is starting Kindergarden, he will be well taken care of–and the Alaskans will have no recollection of the money missing out of their pockets (pre-March of this year). By that point in time, they’ll be used to their tax dollars funding special children, to the Palins’ benefit.

So, Palin = funding personal agendas in the White House (remember Bush? Cheney?) and an easy target for special interest groups.  God help us if we elect McCain/Palin in the November election, and the headliner–to put it bluntly–dies.

Now, I could be wrong about the whole thing, that is, if the Palin kids go to private school. The last time I checked, however, hockey moms didn’t send their kids to private school. Too high-and-mighty for the blue-collar families of America.

Here’s the link for the entire e-mail as fact-checked by factcheck.org: Sliming Palin