Hal Kimball Reponds To Scott Newman Question: “Can We Really Afford To Teach Special Needs Children?”

Earlier this morning I posted a story about Republican candidate, Scott Newman, who responded to a question about protecting special education funding by wondering out loud if we can really afford to teach special needs children in the first place. In the process, I emailed both campaigns in order to get comment. The Kimball Campaign responded first. I will post his remarks without comment:

I believe in an education system that allows every child to have the chance to reach their potential. I am grateful that the parents of these children had the tenacity and fortitude to fight for their children’s rights. It wasn’t that long ago when many of these children would have been sent to state run institutions where they would have spent the rest of their lives. Today these same kids will have opportunities at a productive and full life.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit Pro-works sites in Dassel and Litchfield where developmentally disabled folks are employed doing multiple tasks helping the local economy. These folks loved their jobs and felt both pride and purpose in their performance. They didn’t want charity, they wanted a job.

Special Education enhances not only the lives of these students. It enhances all of our lives because it reinforces our basic American message that every individual has something important to contribute to our society and it’s the purpose of our education system to allow each person to be able to do that. We are a better country because of that.