Thursday, September 30, 2010

Backpedaling Part 2

Handwaving....Governor Arnold (sorry, I am not in the mood to try to spell his last name) vetoed on AB2072 - not necessarily in our favor nonetheless - for financial reasons.

Candy (Gina Sutton) and Mike McConnell verbally supported this bill saying parents should have full access to information but yet were perfectly okay with the original bill minimizing the information on ASL which was expected of them as they are supporters of oralism . When AB2072 was amended during the voting stage, both Candy and Mike backpedaled and said it was expected when the amended included ASL and made changes to the audiologist's role as "the gatekeeper." Candy claimed we should trust the system - that they would make those changes. Mike said the audiologist still had a role and chose not to comment on the role of ASL as a language.

Well, they are doing it again. They are claiming that Governor Arnold did the right thing, and that ASL STILL isn't recognized as a language in state of California without AB2072.

Governor Arnold did not veto the bill for the reason Candy and Mike were hoping for - to declare that ASL is not a language therefore the bill is not necessary. He vetoed it because there is already an existing agency that provides information for Deaf/HH programs provided by CDNIAS. He did not see the need to make changes because AB2072 means changes in the system and additional financial burden in which state of California is not the position in this recession.

What is good about vetoing this bill is the cochlear industry has no monetary control or interest in the current system without AB2072. AB2072 was financed by the cochlear industry including organizations of speech and audiology. Lobbyists from those organizations sponsored several senators, in particular, Senator Mendoza, for AB2072's passage into law for anticipated financial gain and control.

It was too bad Governor Arnold did not recognize the hidden motive for drafting this bill in the first place. He vetoed it solely to protect his state from unnecessary expenditure.

The anti-AB2072 taskforce would like to see the Deaf/HH information dissemination moved from CDNIAS to CDE which I feel would have been proper as the biggest concern in the deaf children is their LANGUAGE development, not health. THAT is where Candy and Mike dissented. They continue to support that deafness is a health concern therefore it is in the right branch of the state's government cabinet. The reason why the state put the Deaf/HH information dissemination under CDNIAS is because the initial diagnosis of deafness usually occur in hospitals, audiologist offices, and doctor offices and these are health arenas. While that is true, indeed, however deafness is not really a health concern, isn't it? Deafness is truly a LANGUAGE concern. Speech is about learning SPOKEN ENGLISH. Aural therapy is about HEARING SPOKEN ENGLISH. ASL is about learning VISUAL LANGUAGE. See the pattern? Nothing about health but language development. Thus anti-AB2072's wanting to move to CDE which was reasonable and proper. Now, does that cost money? I wonder about that...hmmmm.

Additionally, Governor Arnold did another surprising thing...recognizing that the information dissemination under AB2072 was NOT unbiased. Again, Candy and Mike dissented on that, too. Apparently, Governor Arnold, a foreigner, is smarter than them. He could see the blatant biases on that panel. Score one for him!

For the time being, however, it is best that it stays in CDNIAS and that AB2072 is DEAD. No financial flow to the cochlear, audiology, and speech industries.

3 comments:

  1. CAM, well-said!

    That could be a real nigthmare if Meg Whitman get elected as the next CA Governor. She surely will push for the corporate interests as what Mikey McConnell and his gang will endlessly rally for.

    Jerry Brown could be very unpredictable, but he will say to the corporations and deaf naysayers - "Fuck off and leave deaf children all alone!"

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  2. I think it is more important to recognize that Gov Arnold actually caught the biased information dissemination and brochure taskforce members. True, he vetoed more for the unnecessary spending in face of the recession that CA is undergoing, but he put it into writing that he recognized the bias for everyone to read and for the senators sponsoring the bill to "be caught with their hands in the cookie jar."

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  3. RLM, then we need to push on voting for Jerry Brown, then!

    Deaf Tea, Yup. I should put the bias in the first part of the post, however, I caught that part after I posted and it was added as an "afterthought." I am indeed impressed with his catching that.

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