Is the Special Ed Bill Sold Out for TAP?

Liz Benjamin discussed the Special Ed bill veto  with Josh Nathan-Kazis, a Forward writer who covered the bill in a somewhat critical tone. At 6:20 Ms. Benjamin confirmed my sense, that the Orthodox political leadership isn't jumping, a they did in other instances, as when asking for cellphone coverage in the Adirondacks, or during a camp issue in the Hudson Valley.

The explanation for the lack of outrage Mr. Kazis was getting from people - he said - was that they see Mr. Cuomo as our ally on that issue, given the passage of the Yeshiva TAP program, qualifying Yeshiva students for similar State College grants as regular college students. That bill added $18 million to Yeshiva funding.

This confirms what I said in my earlier post that the silence on the special ed issue may be "Special Ed parents are only a minority within our minority community and aren't as politically organized as our Yeshivos." Mr. Kazis is confirming my assertion.

I find it shameful that the Special kids are being traded off for other unrelated programs. These families deserve assistance, and shouldn't be traded off for anything else. The leaderships action, rather non-action on the issue, tells me that they haven't had their wake-up from the past political defeats. The community at large have to do more to awaken them.

BTW, when talking of NY-19 and the community that helped elect John Hall to congress , Ms. Benjamin is crediting the Monsey community for Kiryas Joel's role in electing John Hall (they also helped defeat him 2 years later). Monsye is in Eliot Engel's district.



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