Government must honor responsibility to fund mandates

I am very disturbed to learn that some people think I am attempting to play special education parents against mainstream parents. Nothing could be further from my thinking.

When I trained to be a teacher, I developed a philosophy of education. One of the principles that I wrote in an education essay was that I was responsible for the education, health and safety of every child who entered my classroom.

Another principle was the belief that it was my responsibility to help every student to develop to the maximum of his or her capacities. To do less would mean I was a failure. I did not succeed all the time, but it did not stop me from continuing my efforts.

These beliefs are part of my core and continue now that I am on the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education. My mother, a teacher, said to me when I was sworn in to office, "Do not forget the children."

I have tried to honor the pledge that I made to her. It is a message that has been passed down through three generations of teachers in my family.

I support mainstream and special education with all my heart and soul. I support inclusion in the mainstream classes because I remember when I was in seventh and eighth grades, my classmates and I were segregated because we were handicapped. I entered into the mainstream in high school. Resource room was one of my periods during the day.

Without the help Mrs. Ella K. Stein gave to me as a resource teacher, I would not have graduated from high school and become a teacher.

My daughter was a classified student in this district. I detected her needs to be classified because of my experience as a special education teacher. The district fully prepared her for Manalapan High School.

My comments were made to make the public aware that the state and federal governments have not and will not keep their pledges to fund the programs they mandate that teachers utilize to educate classified children. This year both the state and federal governments failed to increase funds as much as promised. In fact last year the state gave the district less funds for the 2000-01 year than they stated the district would receive from the state.

It is necessary for everyone to be aware of this poor behavior. Only if the public becomes a very noisy lobby for justice will legislators act properly. It is morally wrong for legislators to not fund education but fund more and more testing. It is wrong to force the property owners to have to pay higher taxes because the state and federal government will not take action. We must all begin to speak out.

Martin Spindel

Manalapan