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Letter to the Editor: Reader asks for support of ESD millage.
Dear Editor,
On May 4, 2021, there will be a special education millage renewal for the West Shore Educational Service District (WSESD). This millage renewal will not increase taxes for local taxpayers. We’ve been fortunate to have this millage passed repeatedly since 1990.
Annually more than 1,400 students with disabilities are serviced with these millage dollars. This includes everything from supporting preschool students with special needs to supporting students nearing the end of high school who are working to gain employability. Students who have autism, who are visually impaired, who are hard of hearing, who have cognitive delays, who have physical impairments, who have emotional impairments, or who have traumatic brain injuries are all serviced by these dollars. Students with specific learning disabilities, such as with reading or mathematics, or students who need assistance with speech and language are also supported by the funding of these millage dollars. In essence, these dollars support a wide range of special needs the youth of our community may be facing.
Special education programs and services are mandated by federal and state law. However these mandated programs are not fully funded by the federal or state governments, and require local millage support to meet the needs. These funds are used to support students who attend special programming at West Shore ESD, as well as students who are attending all of the nine local school districts under the umbrella of West Shore ESD. It is important to note that WSESD special education buses travel more than 300,000 miles each year to bring students to and from the class rooms. In addition, these dollars are efficiently spent by coordinating efforts of all the educational partners across the West Shore ESD region to provide high quality services for our special needs students.
Please support the Special Education Renewal Millage on May 4, 2021.
Vic Burwell
Ludington
Letters to the editor are opinion editorials submitted by readers. Letters to the editor are a long tradition in American journalism. The views and opinions of the writer do not necessarily reflect those of Mason County Press, its staff or its parent company. For more information, please refer to MCP’s Op/Ed policy.
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