Salt Lake City — Congressional Candidate Mia Love’s recent claim that her budget plan would not cut funding to special education programs in Utah does not hold up to scrutiny.
Over the weekend, Representative Jim Matheson and Love tangled over whether or not Love’s proposed policies would be detrimental to the needs of Utah’s 65,000 special needs kids and their families. In a just-released video, the Alliance for a Better UTAH fact-checked Matheson and Love’s claims and discovered that Love’s proposed budget would indeed cut special education funding.
[Video available here: http://youtu.be/4ICHILHlnNI ]
Love’s proposed “No Love Plan” budget calls for eliminating funding for the Department of Education. Although it is a federal organization, the Department of Education provides some 100 million dollars in federal aid to Utah’s special education programs. Love’s budget would eliminate that 100 millions dollars and, along with it, the crucial programs used to support over 65,000 special education kids in Utah.
While Love claims she is not eliminating funding for these Utah children, she has made no effort to suggest how this funding would be replaced. Her suggestion that special education funding should be a state issue ignores the fact that as a candidate for federal office, Love would have no influence over the state budget and no influence over the increase in state taxes that would be required to replace these funds.
Despite the accuracy of Matheson’s claims, some in Utah have mischaracterized them as dishonest and negative. Alliance for a Better UTAH recently hosted a press conference in which they called out Utah GOP Chairman Thomas Wright for his own negative campaigning tactics. Wright had suggested earlier this year that there is a line when it comes to negative campaigning.
“It’s not OK when it crosses the line,” said Wright. “And everybody knows where that line is.”
Wright crossed that line. But the line doesn’t preclude calling candidates out for harmful policies, like Love’s decision to cut special education funding–just one of Love’s many detrimental proposals.
Another video recently released by the Alliance for a Better UTAH discusses the impact of other cuts proposed by Love, such as an estimated $20 million cut from Utah police departments that would leave some police officers without adequate protection.
[Video available here: http://youtu.be/8RpVAKJmrUQ ]
Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder has said the cuts would force him to take officers off the street “because sending officers out without bulletproof vests right now just isn’t going to happen.”
Throughout the election season Better UTAH has produced a series of videos highlighting the dangerous policy proposals in Mia Love’s “No Love Plan.” All the videos, with brief explanations of each, can be found at www.betterutah.org/mialove.
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Alliance for a Better Utah | 801.557.1532 | www.betterutah.org
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The Alliance for a Better UTAH is a year-round, multi-issue education and advocacy organization providing resources, commentary, and action on important public policy matters.