Education committee passes deaf education bill

[Miss-Delectable]

Education committee passes deaf education bill | WHYY News and Information | WHYY

Pennsylvania lawmakers are showing support for a school that has a fairly unique approach to teaching children with hearing disabilities. Officials at the school say House members are simply responding to the changing landscape of deaf education.

Schools for the deaf are typically oriented toward American Sign Language. The Clarke School in Bryn Mawr focuses on getting kids who wear hearing technology to listen and speak in oral English.

Corwin: The landscape has changed so dramatically even in the last dozen years.

Bill Corwin is president of the school, and the father of two former students. He says increasingly parents are choosing to have their children outfitted with digital hearing aids or cochlear implants — and to have them use spoken English in typical schools.

The Clarke School prepares children for mainstream education, but it's not one of the state's Approved Private Schools, meaning no state subsidies for parents. The school has been petitioning for an opportunity to get approved, but the Pennsylvania Department of Education turned them down. Spokesman Steve Weitzman:

Weitzman: It's not about the Clarke school, it's we're not taking any applications. There's a line item in the budget which is not increasing and accepting new schools would dilute what's already going on out there.

The Pennsylvania House Education Committee passed a bill that would automatically give Clarke School Approved Private School status. Democratic Representative James Roebuck sponsored the bill.

Roebuck: We'd like to make them part of the cohort of schools that are Approved Private Schools, so we'd have to put more money into that part of the budget.

Roebuck says the full House may take up the bill in the fall.

The Clarke School's Bill Corwin says in the long run the school saves the state money, by keeping children out of expensive, specialized deaf schools.

Corwin: We're talking about a preschool program only whose focus is on getting these kids mainstreamed as quickly as possible.

All of Clarke School's graduates enter mainstream schools by first grade.

The only Approved Private School in Pennsylvania that has the same focus on oral deaf education is in Pittsburgh.

 

[Miss-Delectable]

Education committee passes deaf education bill | WHYY News and Information | WHYY

The Clarke School's Bill Corwin says in the long run the school saves the state money, by keeping children out of expensive, specialized deaf schools.

Clarke school as a cheaper option? I would say that's bullcrap.

It's calling the kettle black when you consider that Clarke is a specialised deaf school, too! What a hypocrite.

 

[shel90]

The Clarke School's Bill Corwin says in the long run the school saves the state money, by keeping children out of expensive, specialized deaf schools.

As usual it is about money not about the children's needs so as usual, deaf children will pay the price. Does anyone really care? Not many.

 

[jillio]

Not only that, but kids are eventually mainstreamed from Clarke. Accommodations in the mainstream are not cheaper or more cost efficient. We heard the same thing about the CI. It is going to be cheaper and more cost efficient long term. That has proven to be completely false.

And, what the hell is Clarke School? It is an expensive, specialized school for the deaf. Audists can't even see when they make a statement applicable to themselves. What the heck is so unique about oral only education? It has been going on for years. Nothing new under the sun. Including the fact that most children educated in an oral only environment end up with educational, social, psychological, and linguistic delays.
Once again, more medicalization and focus on pathology. Its disgusting.

 

[lkayne]

We will always need the sign language. Some deaf people are not verbal. Some may be blind and others or a bit slower in the hearing world. Thanks for cochlear implants that some of us may be able to pick up sounds and make sounds of our own. I speak, I sign some...it is not easy. We have to keep specialized schools open for the deaf.

 

[Bebonang]

The Clarke School's Bill Corwin says in the long run the school saves the state money, by keeping children out of expensive, specialized deaf schools.

As usual it is about money not about the children's needs so as usual, deaf children will pay the price. Does anyone really care? Not many.

I agree with you, Shel. The Audists don't seem to care what they want for the deaf children to suffer trying to use oral-only method. But if the schools can have sign language in the classrooms and hire interpreters in their advancing grades. Then it would be great to make their life easier. But for now and probably forever, it will never happen to make the deaf children less suffer.

 

[Beowulf]

"Roebuck says the full House may take up the bill in the Fall."

Gee, I wonder if the House will have any idea what they are voting on?

 

[rolling7]

"Roebuck says the full House may take up the bill in the Fall."

Gee, I wonder if the House will have any idea what they are voting on?

They never ever do....just look at the Health Bill....not one of them knew what it was about.

 

[jillio]

Clarke school as a cheaper option? I would say that's bullcrap.

It's calling the kettle black when you consider that Clarke is a specialised deaf school, too! What a hypocrite.

Yep. And what is up with "fairly unique approach?" Nothing unique about oralism. These writers need to get their information straight.:roll:

 

[deafdyke]

What the heck is so unique about oral only education?

It can make money for hearing technology companies! I really do think if the profit factor wasn't there, oral only would not even exist!