Fwd: Joanne Wilson: Bush Dismantling Disability Programs

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From ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights:

 

 

 

Disabled Program Changes Decried

Former RSA Chief Faults Consolidation

 

By Brian Faler

Special to The Washington Post

Monday, April 25, 2005; A17

 

 

 

 

The woman who, until recently, led the federal government effort to get the

nation's disabled into the workforce is lashing out at the Bush administration,

saying it is quietly attempting to " dismantle " programs critical to helping the

blind, deaf and otherwise disabled find jobs.

 

Joanne Wilson, who left her job as commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services

Administration on March 1, now says she quit in protest of what she said were

the administration's largely unnoticed efforts to gut the office's funding and

staffing.

 

" Programs for people with disabilities are being dismantled, and nobody is

crying out and saying, 'Look what's happening,' " said Wilson, who, as RSA

commissioner, was one of the government's highest-ranking disabled officials.

 

Wilson said the Department of Education, which has jurisdiction over the office,

is pushing to allow governors to combine RSA programs with a number of other job

placement programs that serve both the disabled and the able-bodied. The net

result of such a move, she said, would be less money and fewer services

dedicated to helping those with disabilities. Wilson said the agency is also

cutting RSA staffing by about half while pushing to downgrade the authority of

the commissioner who runs it.

 

The agency defended the proposal, saying the consolidation would make the

program more efficient and flexible and would not affect the government's

vocational services for the disabled.

 

" Even though you combine it with other programs, it's going to be the

responsibility of the states to use it responsibly and to generate the results

that they are going to be required to have in order to qualify for the money, "

said John Hager, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative

services.

 

Hager said the staffing cuts -- expected to slice the RSA's personnel to about

70, from 138 -- are coming at the expense of its regional offices, which the

agency has deemed unnecessary thanks, in part, to advances in technology. " This

is something most parts of the Department of Education did years ago, " he said.

 

The reorganization, which the administration proposed in its 2006 budget plan,

would have to be approved by Congress.

 

The RSA provides money, technical assistance and oversight to state agencies

that, in turn, provide rehabilitative and vocational services for those who are

blind, deaf, paralyzed or intellectually disabled. Such services may include

training on how to live independently, navigate communities and develop

marketable skills.

 

The program serves about 1.2 million people at an annual cost of about $2.9

billion. Those who enroll in the programs participate for a few months to

several years. Hager said that the RSA places about 215,000 each year and that

two-thirds of those who enter the program come out with jobs.

 

Fredric K. Schroeder, who ran the office for much of the Clinton administration

and is teaming up with Wilson to draw attention to her criticisms, said the

proposed consolidated job program would not be able to provide the same range of

the often expensive and extensive services RSA offers.

 

" The way you rehabilitate a person with a severe disability is very different

than the way you help a dislocated worker return to the workforce, " he said.

 

Moreover, they said, the disabled would probably get lost in the mix of a

combined program because many state agencies are pressured to place as many

people in jobs as possible. That would often lead them, Wilson said, to focus on

those easiest to place.

 

Hager, the education official, called those warnings " speculative " and said the

administration has proposed increasing the RSA's funding. It has proposed

expanding the office's state grant programs by slightly more than 3 percent. The

overall RSA budget would remain essentially unchanged, however.

 

The president of one of the major advocacy groups for the disabled, the American

Association of People with Disabilities, said the organization has not taken a

position on the proposal. Andrew Imparato said the group is waiting for more

details to emerge.

 

" There's an ongoing dilemma within disability policy, " he said. " Do we want

separate programs that we can then try to hold accountable? Or do we want to

hold the generic programs accountable? Or do we want a little bit of both? "

 

Wilson, who was named to the post in 2001, is herself the beneficiary of a job

placement program designed for the disabled. She became blind as a child and was

illiterate for much of her childhood, she said. Wilson entered a program in Iowa

at age 19. She went on to become a public school teacher before running the

Louisiana Center for the Blind and, later, the RSA. She is now a director at the

advocacy group National Federation of the Blind.

 

" The system invested money in me, and they invested a lot of time in me, " Wilson

said. " . . . But as a result I've been employed for how many years now? That

was when I was 19. I'm now 58. I was employed for 40 years and paid a lot of

taxes back into the system with that. I couldn't have gotten that if I had

walked into a generic job placement program. "

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

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