At a gathering of school board members and public school administrators in Madison, Wisconsin, Republican Wisconsin State Assemblyman Dan LeMathieu said that special needs children are “a burden on our schools.”

This comes as members of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin State Legislature are set to vote on a state budget, which was proposed by Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, that includes a proposed special needs school voucher program.

Dan LeMathieu admitted the real reason why he and his fellow Republicans in Wisconsin want to implement a special needs school voucher program: because they believe that allowing special needs children to attend public schools is “a burden” on public schools, and, therefore, they want to make it difficult, if not impossible, for public schools to be able to accommodate special needs children, forcing many parents of special needs children to send their children to private schools, where there is no guarantee that their educational needs will be properly accommodated.

As someone who was a special needs student in a small-town public school district in Central Illinois, I know that special needs students are NOT a “burden” on public schools. My teachers knew how to deal with me and treated me with respect, and they didn’t consider it a “burden” to teach me.

I find it to be absolutely appalling that an elected official would make offensive, disparaging remarks about special needs children.

I was once a special needs student in school, and it ticks me off!

To say that a special needs student is a “burden” is flat out insulting to the nth degree!

h/t: The Apollo Report