Statement from ISPC Chicago to Chicago Public Schools re Special Education Budget Cuts

The Illinois Singer-Payer Coalition Chicago supports full funding for the special education program for CPS students with disabilities.

We work for universal access to all necessary healt care, including mental health care, as a necessary but not sufficient condition for social justice. We work for a health care system that transfers wealth from those who have the most to those who have the least.

We acknowledge that a well-designed health care system, while necessary, is not the most important factor in people's health. We believe that providing for social determinants of health, including education and living wage jobs, is an essential foundation for a just health care system. 

With years of inadequate special education funding from state and federal sources, students with disabilities suffer from lack of qualified teachers and quality education. CPS has failed many special education students, leaving them unprepared for college and life. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 17.5% of people with a disability were employed in 2015, compared to 65% of people without a disability (1). Without a good education students with disabilities will not have tools to get good paying jobs. 

If you make budget cuts in special education, and deprive students of qualified teachers and teachers' aides, they will fall through the cracks in the school system. Without a quality education students will not have the credentials for jobs. Because education is related to good health, their health will suffer as well. 

We urge you to fund special education fully, and to do so by taxing those who can most afford to pay. 

(1) http://www.bls.gov/news.release/disabl.nr0.htm; accessed 8/9/16.

Approved August 11, 2016