State cuts leave deaf, blind children behind

State cuts leave deaf, blind children behind

I am appalled to say that our state has chosen to blatantly disregard our fundamental right to an unbiased education with recent cuts to the deaf and blind schools.

These cuts will herd the schools closer to closing their doors during which students would be subjected to one of two inevitable options. First, extremely small regional schools where the population of students may not surpass single digits, or, second, the students may be catapulted into mainstream schools where he/she is one of very few if any deaf/blind students.

Article IX, Section 2, of the N.C. Constitution explicitly states that all children will receive an equal opportunity at education. “Equal opportunity” — two simple words that are lost in the vocabulary of the officials making these inhumane cuts. With decreased funding, we as a society have dubbed this small, yet vibrant population of United States citizens as an exception to statue of encouraging education as stated in the N.C. Constitution Article IX, Section 1.

The very last place to make budget cuts is education especially cutting direct student contact personnel at the only three schools in the state which are uniquely designed to support the deaf and blind populations. We must fight for the basic civil rights of all Americans rather than cutting their education and enslaving them into a cast system.

No Child Left Behind, a program strongly advocated by Gov. Beverly Perdue, is being silently broken. Please stand up for injustice to ensure that deaf children will see our voices in the fight for their right to life, love and happiness beginning with education.

No recession is worth our children; no child left behind means no child, neither deaf nor blind.