Letter Exchange with
Assembly Representative Pete Biondi (R) District 16
On Behalf of Efforts to Protect Strong Special Education Law
When we sent our
letter to Special Education Director Barbara Ganterk , we included our NJ
Assembly and NJ Senate representatives in the letter. Assembly
representative Pete Biondi responded (see below) asking what he can do to
"assist." The following letter was sent as a reply. If we get
further response, we will post it here.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Witanek [mailto:bwitanek@igc.org]
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2005
12:15 AM
To: 'AsmBiondi@njleg.org'
Subject: Your Response to Our
Letter to Ms. Gantwerk
Dear NJ Assembly Representative Pete Biondi,
Thank you for taking an interest in the letter that we have sent to Ms. Barbara Gantwerk and for taking the time to respond. The challenges to families with students having disabilities are not readily apparent to most who are not directly touched by our struggles. We do not represent the largest possible constituency in any voting district. For most families with “typical” children, including those who are concerned about many important issues of the day, it is not easy for them to empathize, nor to advocate upon our behalf. However, we are making some amazing connections with many local and statewide organizations that have not traditionally worked together and have not traditionally addressed advocacy for the disabled.
Your offer to assist, if you are to follow through upon it, would demonstrate a rare but important commitment to those in this state with the some of the most difficult lives. We need political leaders, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit upon or if they even identify with “red” or “blue” to stand forward on behalf of our children and our families.
There are quite powerful lobbies that worked hard to bring about the weakening of IDEA legislation on the federal level. They were able to hold sway over office holders in Washington DC including members of your party and others who are members of the Democratic Party. There initial goals went even much further than what they were able to accomplish. We believe that those in DC who have made this decision leading us into where we are now in NJ are far removed from the challenges of our families in working overtime, struggling and advocating for a Free and Appropriate Public Education for our children with disabilities. You on the other hand are a local representative. You do not spend your time in DC dealing with hundreds of pieces of legislation on complicated issues of national concern. While you no doubt have a plateful in the NJ Assembly, you also still live in our neighborhoods and you likely know members of our own community who have children with disabilities in the public school system so you have an opportunity to connect with us.
We need advocates in Trenton who are willing to go to bat for our children and our families. The very survival of our children and any potential they have to surmount or navigate the many obstacles that they must unfairly encounter, depends upon the strongest possible special education law. IDEA is a life line for our children and we in this community and with these circumstances are absolutely dependent upon the rights that it grants to us.
We have laid it out quite clearly to Barbara Gantwerk, some of the provisions of current law that are absolutely essential. NJ clearly has the ability to make special education law that is stronger than the federal law. In doing so it need only delineate to the federal government those areas where it has decided to maintain stronger law.
We have launched a petition drive at http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org . We have nearly 70 signatures in two days and we have just begun to publicize it. We invite you to go to the site, read the petition and to add your name to it. We invite you to notify your colleagues about this important issue and to discuss with them the importance of this issue and its potential as a means to demonstrate your concern for some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We invite you to look beyond partisanship and to work with all of your legislative colleagues to stand as one with the special needs families of NJ – to send a clear message to the Department of Education that it needs to heed the call of our community.
The lobbyists who spent thousands to try to undermine special education law in DC have gone home – they believe that they have won. Of course, the special needs constituencies are already over burdened financially and emotionally from the day to day challenges so we were unable to provide a match for the much stronger lobbies that motivated these changes in DC. However, we are organizing ourselves in NJ and developing unity across organizations throughout the state on a grassroots basis. As a local representative, you are aware that the grassroots plays a much greater role on the ground on the local level than it does in DC.
We are looking
for champions in Trenton to carry our issues forward. Initially you can sign
our petition. You can write your own letter to Ms. Gantwerk and Acting Governor
Codey. You can talk to your colleagues and generate interest in representing
and advocating for us. Perhaps hearings in your chamber halls could be in
order. It needs to be made quite clear to Ms. Gantwerk, the Department of
Education and the Trenton Administration that the students with disabilities and
their families are the most important component of the IDEIA 2004 issue and the
most important voices. We need you to amplify our voices so that they will be
heard by those in power who too often are too far from us and are out of earshot
from those whose voices are the tiniest, the students with disabilities.
I am not sure what you meant when you offered to assist but I am hoping that you
might be one to step up to the plate on behalf of our children!
Sincerely,
Bob Witanek http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org
-----Original
Message-----
From: Assemblyman Peter J. Biondi,
R., NJ Legislative District 16 [mailto:AsmBiondi@NJLEG.ORG]
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005
2:42 PM
To: bwitanek@igc.org
Subject: Recent letter
Dear Mr. Witanek,
I was recently copied on a letter that was sent to Ms. Barbara Gantwerk in the
NJ Dept. of Education. Please keep me apprised of this ongoing commentary and
let me know if there is anything I can do to assist you in your efforts.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Pete Biondi
Assemblyman
Ask the Advocate
NJ Complaint Form (MS Word)
(PDF)
On Line Public Hearing on IDEIA 2004
Survey on NJ OSEP Complaint
Process
Past Activities
IEP Wkshp
Rec. Programs for
those w/ Disabilities
An Evening of Educational Advocacy
September 8, 2005 Edison, NJ
What The Student Advocate Has Done for Our Children
Lately . . .
NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee
Minutes of IDEIA 2004 meeting on Thu., May
26
Student Rights Radio
Discussion, October 31
Effort to
Reach Gubernatorial Hopefuls and Acting Governor / Candidates
IDEA: An Update
Dec. 5, 2005
Middletown
January 18,
2006: Hold a Candle Light for Our Children's Rights
50 Strong For Our
Children
No. Jersey Radio Interview Aired, 1/22
Petitioning for Rights Children: Legal in Princeton
Interview on NJ IDEIA Rights
- Racial Disparities in Sp-Ed
Call
is Heard in Montgomery Twp: Inclusive Recreation
NJSAU Minutes 2/18/2006
Playing and Singing for
Our Rights, 4/1/6
Better IDEA Laws for Special Education
Students?
Better IEPs? Anything is Possible!
April
1 Report: Student Advocacy Union - Fundraising Concert
Mobilization for Rights
of Our Children, May 17, 2006, Trenton
Nationwide Internet Radio Rally for Sp-Ed Parent Rights
9pm EST, Sat. May 20
Parents’ Rally @ Statehouse in Trenton Thursday, June 8, 2006
Piscataway Parents Mtg, June 19, 2006