Speaking of "victimhood." This is just wrong to subsidize.
The right to college
Joanne Jacobs
Developmentally disabled adults are going to college with the help of special programs that provide a campus experience, practical skills and modified academic classes. The Chicago Tribune reports:
"This population is desperate for better," said Cynthia Johnson, director of a program at Washington state's Bellevue Community College, which offers an associate's degree to students with Down syndrome or other cognitive impairments.
Johnson compared the inequities to "the colored schools of the 1950s," when African-American children were put in separate classes and not expected to learn. "This is a civil rights issue and a moral issue," she said. "Its time has come."
Just a year ago, only 35 programs existed for these students. Now there are more than 90 at two- and four-year colleges, according to the U.S. Department of Education, including one at Elmhurst College, which began in September and is touted as the first of its kind in Illinois.
Each program is different. Though the courses are demanding, they are taught differently. Less "chalk and talk," more hands-on experiences and technology, such as voice-activated computers.
The analogy isn't persuasive: Intellectual impairment is relevant to college learning; race is not.
Community colleges offer vocational training and remediation to a broad range of students, so it's not much of a stretch to locate a program for the cognitively disabled on those campuses. But some of these programs are at four-year colleges, which are supposed to be academic. And some give a standard degree to students who presumably aren't capable of completing a standard course of study.
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