Speaking of stupid.

More intellectually disabled youths go to college

 

WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Zach Neff is all high-fives as he walks through his college campus in western Missouri. The 27-year-old with Down syndrome hugs most everybody, repeatedly. He tells teachers he loves them.

 

"I told Zach we are putting him on a hug diet — one to say hello and one to say goodbye," said Joyce Downing, who helped start a new program at the University of Central Missouri that serves students with disabilities.

 

The hope is that polishing up on social skills, like cutting back on the hugs, living in residence halls and going to classes with non-disabled classmates will help students like Neff be more independent and get better jobs.

 

In years past, college life was largely off-limits for students with such disabilities, but that's no longer the case. Students with Down syndrome, autism and other conditions that can result in intellectual disabilities are leaving high school more academically prepared than ever and ready for the next step: college.

 

Eight years ago, disability advocates were able to find only four programs on university campuses that allowed students with intellectual disabilities to experience college life with extra help from mentors and tutors. As of last year, there were more than 250 spread across more than three dozen states and two Canadian provinces, said Debra Hart, head of Think College at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston, which provides services to people with disabilities.

 

That growth is partly because of an increasing demand for higher education for these students and there are new federal funds for such programs.

 

The federal rules that took effect this fall allow students with intellectual disabilities to receive grants and work-study money. Because details on the rules are still being worked out, the earliest students could have the money is next year. Hart and others expect the funds to prompt the creation of even more programs.

 

"There is a whole generation of young people who have grown up under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and to them it (college) is the logical next step," Hart said.

 

The college programs for these students vary. Generally the aim is to support the students as they take regular classes with non-disabled students. Professors sometimes are advised to modify the integrated classes by doing things like shifting away from a format that relies entirely on lectures and adding more projects in which students can work in groups.One program in Idaho offers classes in drama, art and sign language. Students on other campuses can improve their computer skills or take child development classes.

 

Sometimes they're paired with non-disabled students and advocates say the educational coaches, mentors and tutors who help them often are studying to become special education teachers or social workers and learn from the experience too.

 

 

Disability advocates say only a small percentage of these students will receive degrees, but that the programs help them get better jobs.

 

Historically, adults with intellectual disabilities have been restricted primarily to jobs in fast food restaurants, cleaning or in so-called "sheltered workshops," where they work alongside other disabled people and often earn below-minimum wages, said Madeleine Will, vice president of the National Down Syndrome Society.

 

With additional training, Hart said participants can go on to do everything from being a librarian's assistants to data-entry work in an office.

 

Much remains to be learned about what type of program works best, but Hart said that will likely change.

 

Besides allowing for federal financial aid for these programs, Congress also has appropriated $10.56 million to develop 27 model projects to identify successful approaches.

 

The infusion of federal money has generated some criticism. Conservative commentator Charlotte Allen said it's a waste to spend federal tax dollars on the programs and insisted that calling them college dilutes the meaning of college.

 

"It's a kind of fantasy," said Allen, a contributing editor for Minding the Campus, a publication of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. "It may make intellectually disabled people feel better, but is that what college is supposed to be all about?"

 

Oftentimes students with these disabilities stop their formal education when they finish high school, which is usually around the age of 21. Some districts have a partnership with colleges under which the district pays for their 18- to 21-year-old students to take higher education classes. In other cases, college costs are paid for by the parents.

 

Their children previously haven't been eligible for grants and work study money because they generally weren't seeking a degree and wouldn't have been admitted to college through the typical process.

 

These programs look "at higher education for what it's purpose in our community and our culture is — to provide opportunities for learning," said Meg Grigal, a researcher who works with Hart.

 

Back at the University of Central Missouri, Neff and another participant in the program for students with developmental issues, Gabe Savage, laugh with friends during lunch in their residence hall cafeteria.

 

Savage, a 26-year-old from Kansas City, is grateful for it all — new friends, the chance to try out for a school play, brush up on his computer skills and even take a bowling class with non-disabled students looking to earn a physical education credit.

 

"It's an answer to my prayer that I am here," he said. "I always wanted to do this."

 

What a waste of tax dollars.

Well again this is "feel good" politics. Progressives can sit there and claim how great they are for "caring more" than anyone else for the disabled but they only care as long as it is someone else's money they are spending to provide that help.

 

Obama and the rest of these Progressive Politicians all talk about greedy companies and how bad they are and yet how many of them live in a modest 2500 square foot home or drive a domestic sedan at under $20,000? How many? Not one of them right?

 

 

All of these Progressives live in milti million dollar homes and take lavish vacations and live like those hated business men with the only exception being that those Business men earned their money in business and the Progressives got most of their money from the Government tit or payoffs from Unions and such. If they really believed in what they say about redistributing wealth they would give up most of their own money first.

 

 

 

I feel bad for these disabled people too, but we can't just keep tossing money at anythign that pulls the heart strings and ignore the fact that we are far beyond broke. We are spending money we do not have to create these programs.

Well, you call me a progressive. So do I live in a multi-million dollar house with like 6 limos? No. Do my parents? No. And they're more long the "progressive" mindset than I am. But you think that everyone who isn't you is a progressive unless they listen to Rush, so that explains a few things.

Well, you call me a progressive. So do I live in a multi-million dollar house with like 6 limos? No. Do my parents? No. And they're more long the "progressive" mindset than I am. But you think that everyone who isn't you is a progressive unless they listen to Rush, so that explains a few things.

Let me explain a little further....

 

There are the Progressive elite leadership, and the Progressive followers. When I speak of the Progressive political decisions and such I am not talking about the followers, they can't make any decisions, all they can do is provide their support for the decisions made by the ruling class.

 

Obama, Reid, Pelosi, all the leadership in Washington making decisions for all of America are attacking business and the "evil rich" in various ways but most of the time they try to use class warfare and 'greed' as political selling points to their followers when they are just as greedy and rich themselves. The only difference is the Progressive rich preach one thing, and live another. If being "rich" was so bad and redistribution of wealth was the right way to go, why don't they set the example by giving up their multi million dollar homes and living more basic lives?

 

 

 

 

As far as calling you a Progressive, in many ways you do support a Progressive agenda, but you have shown a couple sparks of hope in my mind that maybe you can grow out of it as you get older and more mature. The best way to become a Conservative is to work hard and earn a good living in the private sector. After you see the results of your hard work be taken away to give to people who don't work as hard as you do, the Conservative mindset is usually not far behind.

 

It is easy to approve of Government programs when you are not the guy paying for them. The average American does not pay any federal income taxes after you figure in what they take out and what they get back at the end of the year. Anyone who has a Government job does not really pay taxes, sure they see a tax line on their paycheck, but their income is tax money to start with so the money they give back already belonged to the Government in the first place.

 

 

 

Basically if you vote Democrat, you are a progressive follower.

 

 

Some of the defining elements of being a Democrat/Progressive:

 

 

1 They believe people who are 'rich' only got that way by raping the 'poor'.

 

2 They support the idea of "social justice".

 

3 They believe Government not the individual is more important for society.

 

4 They think some people just can't measure up in things like education or business.

 

5 They see the "goal" for society to be completely Socialist, they know that cannot happen all at once but that is the goal.

 

6 They have no respect for the source of their tax revenue. If they run out they simply raise taxes. Not funding wasteful social programs is not an option, in fact being broke is the first sign they need to raise taxes and begin new social programs.

 

 

 

There are many more but this is a basic list of what Democrats/Progressives stand for. If you find any of these things as reasonable, you are most likely Progressive leaning. If you find all of them as bad, you are a conservative minded person.