Palin did not cut special needs funding by 62%, she increased it
On September 4, CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien alleged that Palin, while governor, cut the Alaska special needs budget.
“One area that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I’m sure you’re aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. "
There is a major cut in the Early Development Special Schools budget between 2007 and 2008. You can view them here:
2007 budget (PDF)
2008 budget (PDF)
FactCheck.org reported:
Those who claim that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent are looking in the wrong place and misinterpreting what they find there. They point to an apparent drop in the Department of Education and Early Development budget for special schools. But the special schools budget, despite the similar name, isn’t the special needs budget.
The decrease in funding for special schools is illusory. Palin moved the Alaska Military Youth Academy’s Challenge program, a residential military school program that teaches job and life skills to students under 20, out of the budget line for “special schools” and into its own line. This resulted in an apparent drop of more than $5 million in the special schools budget with no actual decrease in funding for the programs.
In a later report, FactCheck.org said:
The budget item for special needs students is called “Foundation Program,” and it did not decrease while Palin was governor. The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development told us that special needs and intensive needs students (that’s students with extreme special needs, the recipients of the largest per-student increase under Palin) got a total of $219 million in 2007, $220 million in 2008 and a projected $276 million in 2009. That’s a projected increase of 26 percent over Palin’s predecessor.
Education Week reported
that the education budget Palin signed in March 2008 actually raises the amount of spending on special needs students:
(The budget plan) raises spending for students with special needs to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Table of Contents
- Top Palin Videos
- Troopergate: Palin fired Monegan for weakness in rural alcohol issues, offered him a job days later based on strength in rural alcohol issues
- Palin tells the Alaskan Independence Party, whose goal is a vote on seceding from the U.S., to ‘keep up the good work.’
- Palin skits on Saturday Night Live
- As of July 31st, Palin did not know what the vice president does
- Palin rallies the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota
- Palin says her proposed $30 billion pipeline project is "God's will"
- Palin says reductions in earmarks were because of Obama and McCain, not her
- Introduction to the country by John McCain: first speech in Ohio
- Palin incorrectly claims Alaska has accounted for "much progress" towards U.S. energy independence
- How many pigs with lipstick are there in America?
- Palin criticizes Hillary for complaining about sexist coverage; after being nominated, flip flops and says Hillary handled it well
- McCain said readiness to be president would be chief factor; nine vice-presidents have become president in the past
- Palin played significant role in planned gas pipeline, though has exaggerated some parts
- As governor, Palin billed state for 312 nights she spent in her own home
- Palin accepted $25,000 in gifts as governor; also received gifts from consituents while mayor
- Palin children traveled on state
- Palin did not cut special needs funding by 62%, she increased it
- Palin's record on pork barrel earmark spending: among the worst in the U.S.
- McCain attacked Wasilla three times during Palin's tenure for earmarks Palin won from Congress through lobbying
- Palin's relationship to Ted Stevens, master of pork barrel spending
- Record of Washington pork spending as mayor of Wasilla
- Record of Washington pork spending as governor is worst in the country
- Did not veto $500 million in earmarks as claimed
- Affirmed her support for earmarks while governor
- Alaska's earmark cutbacks were due to Congress, not Palin, Palin and her top official say.
- Palin criticized Obama for having 1/30th the amount of earmarks she had as governor and 1/60th the amount she had as mayor
- Palin's churches, and her speech as governor at the Wasilla Assembly of God
- Said her proposed $30 billion pipeline project was “will of God” and asked that Iraq war be “task of God”
- Palin spoke at the church as the governor, not as a private citizen; charged the state for airfare and other expenses
- Pastor of Palin's church said people who criticized Bush would go to hell, and that Jesus was in ‘war mode‘ and favored going to war in Iraq
- Palin's current church trying to get gay people to change their orientation
- Speaking at Palin's church, founder of Jews for Jesus says Jews are being punished by terrorists
- Major speeches and interviews since being selected
- Palin blew the whistle twice on a fellow Republican
- Jet not sold on eBay and not sold for a profit
- Palin, Democrats appear to share credit for oil tax increase
- The Bridge to Nowhere
- Palin claims she killed the Bridge to Nowhere
- Palin supported the bridge, accused ‘spinmeisters‘ of painting a negative image of it and used it to get elected
- She criticized use of the phrase “bridge to nowhere” as insulting
- Palin flip-flopped after the bridge became an embarrassment, and after Congress removed the funding earmark
- Palin reversed her support without telling anyone in Ketchikan first
- Palin announced her opposition to it at 5 a.m. Alaska time, a move critics say was timed to reach East Coast media before deadlines
- Palin did not say “no thanks;” kept the originally earmarked money and used it for other projects.
- Troopergate: Palin's firing of the public safety chief
- Palin did not endorse Buchanan in 2000; did attend a rally and wear a Buchanan button
- Position on abortion
- Palin favors teaching both contraception and abstinence
- Laughed three times in a radio interview when opponent who had cancer was called a cancer, overweight and a bitch
- Palin accepted money from known corrupt oilman later convicted in political scandals
- A month before her selection, she didn’t know what the vice president does
- Foreign policy and security
- A beginner on national and international issues
- Has only been to three foreign countries; never left North America before last year
- Palin has put little focus on Iraq; equated the war with 9-11
- Small involvement in Alaska National Guard
- Proximity of Alaska to Russia
- Palin did not appear to know what the Bush doctrine was
- Palin and the press
- Contradictory statements on Hillary Clinton's demeanor in the primary and the issue of news coverage of women politicians
- Palin did not take one question from a reporter in her first 7 days
- McCain campaign says Palin won't speak to the press unless it's in McCain's “best interest” and “best to win.”
- Palin restricts press access while meeting with world leaders at UN
- Presidential historians say Palin is least experienced person on a major party ticket in modern history
- The two largest newspapers in Alaska have raised concerns about her experience and readiness
- Palin and Democrats joined together to pass ethics bill
- Alaskans mad about intrusions from McCain campaign into state government
- The Environment
- Bush campaign veterans brought in to help Palin
- Husband was member of the fringe Alaskan Independence Party; Palin told ‘08 convention “keep up the good work.”
- Photo of Palin in a bikini holding a rifle is fake
- Palin criticized for mocking community organizing
- Taxes
- Spending
- In her convention speech, Palin quoted a racist author who advocated killing RFK
- Alaska supplies 3.5% of the U.S. domestic energy supply, not 20% as claimed by Palin
- Did Obama call Palin a pig?
- Palin returned donation from indicted politician
- TIME magazine analysis of the Palin phenomenon
- Experts: Palin's email practices raise questions about security, openness
- Years as mayor of Wasilla
- Palin tried to fire the Wasilla police chief and head of the town library in 1997 for “not fully supporting her”
- Palin asked town librarian about banning books and told department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters
- Claim that Palin got more votes in Wasilla than Biden did for president
- Wasilla charged rape victims for forensic exams
- With a city administrator and no school system, Palin had limited duties as mayor
- Editorials, columns and opinion pieces about Palin
- Palin's husband has returned to BP after a leave of absence
- Palin did not cut funding for teen moms, she increased it
- Statements on teaching creationism in public schools
- Did Palin take a pay cut as mayor?
- As mayor, Palin got zoning aid on sale of her home
- Palin tells a voter U.S. should invade Pakistan if needed; McCain blames journalists
- Palin and Drilling in ANWR
- Palin booed at NHL game
- RNC spends $150,000 on Palin and family's wardrobe
- Palin pipeline terms curbed bids
- Some in the McCain camp accuse Palin of going 'rogue'
- Palin in 2012?
- Obama ad features Palin
- Suggestions and corrections
- Palin blames Bush administration for defeat
- Palin's return to Alaska may not be so warm
- McCain Campaign Spent $110,000 on Palin's Stylists
- Palin files late disclosure for free 2007 trips