Much has been made of the fact that the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has a 5-month-old baby boy with Down syndrome. While a good deal of the discussion has generated far more heat than light, Palin’s personal situation does raise the question of whether she will be a disability-rights advocate if elected.

During her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Palin underscored her connection to families with special-needs children. They would, she said, have “a friend and advocate in the White House”.

But Palin’s-and the Republicans’-stand on some issues could complicate her ability to advocate for the disabled. She is opposed (unlike her running mate) to embryonic stem-cell research, a position highlighted by her Democratic counterpart, Senator Joe Biden. On Sept 9, Biden asked why, if Palin plans to help parents of disabled children, she doesn’t support stem-cell research. The McCain campaign called Biden’s remarks part of “an offensive debate over who cares more about special-needs children”. Neither campaign appears to have addressed the issue of whether stem-cell research holds any promise for conditions like Down syndrome.

Like John McCain, Palin also supports a voucher system that would enable parents to choose which schools their children attend. School choice is usually appealing to voters in principle, since it gives parents the right to remove children from failing or dangerous public (ie, state-supported, free) schools, and vouchers theoretically broaden the availability of educational venues beyond the public system to private or charter (fee-supported) schools. In practice, though, US schools are basically run by state, local, and private authorities, not by the federal government. Those local policies may dictate which children can enroll in specific schools, and not all schools (in particular, private ones) will accommodate special-needs children.

Controversy dogged the nominee last week when it was reported that Palin had decreased funding for special education in Alaska. This charge turned out to be false. Special-education funding actually increased under her gubernatorial tenure, though some funds were shifted away from the general population of students with disabilities towards those with multiple disabilities who need special, intensive services. But at least one lawsuit has been filed against the state, which is largely rural and resource-poor, for failure to provide adequate services and funding for the needs of disabled children.

Finally, if Palin plans to advocate for the disabled, she will face a number of demands for reform of the US health-care system. Both parties have plans for health-care reform. Whether any reform would extend the range of services disabled people need to function as healthy, fully functioning members of society remains to be seen.

Faith McLellan

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pm and is filed under US Election. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.