Text of Advance Youth Leadership Power Stop the CPS Cuts Flier

Front

(picture of scissors cutting dollar bills in half)

Special Ed Budget Cuts Equals Cutting Off Our Future

(headshot pictures of youth with disabilities)

CPS must STOP special education budget cuts and layoffs!  Students with disabilities aren't getting the education they DESERVE!

Back

TODAY, the Chicago Board of Education will vote on the final budget for the 2006/2007 school year.  This budget includes the elimination of 950 SPECIAL ED TEACHERS AND AIDES. 

More than  30 years after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and eight years after the Corey H. Settlement, students with disabilities still do not have the same access to an integrated, quality education as their non-disabled peers. 
Only 5.2% of CPS 11th graders with disabilities can read at the State Standard for Reading.
58.8% of CPS students with disabilities graduate from high school compared to a rate of 76.1% for all Illinois students with disabilities.

The cuts that CPS proposes will make it even more difficult for students with disabilities to receive a quality education.    
For the 2006-2007 School Year, the CPS will reduce the special education budget by $26 million.  We will lose 200 teachers and 750 aides.
Classroom aides are a critical accommodation that enable students with disabilities to participate in mainstream classes and access an education on par with students without disabilities. 

47.7% of all teacher/aide cuts for next year are in special ed.  What's CPS got against kids with disabilities?

AYLP demands that the cuts be stopped!

This flier is brought to you by Advance Youth Leadership Power  (AYLP), an advocacy group of young people with disabilities ages 18 to 26.   Many of us are currently in or have graduated from special education programs in CPS.  We are here to make sure the youth of tomorrow have a better education than the youth of today.  For more information, please contact Jose Ocampo at (708) 426-8688 (cell) or (708) 656-3826.