Cuts to Summer School program for Adults with Disabilities

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15105202

Dennis McCarthy: Teacher protests special education cuts
When you've devoted your professional life to fighting for the underdog, you don't just shut up and walk away when the fight comes to you.


You can't, Robert Zazula says. It's impossible. It goes against everything he stands for.

So the 53-year-old teacher speaks out when the politically correct thing would be to take the hit and keep quiet. He makes waves that may come back to drown him someday, but he's willing to take the chance.

It comes with the turf when you make your living fighting for people who can't fight for themselves.

Zazula has been a special education teacher in the adult school division of the Los Angeles Unified School District for 27 years.

His job is to take developmentally disabled adults as far as their abilities allow - work with them to stand proud and be part of the community. Give them the skills to get a job and live on their own.

He's a passionate kind of guy, which makes him a very good teacher, says Ken Lane, who founded The Adult Skills Center in Van Nuys where Zazula teaches. He also teaches at Ability First in Woodland Hills.

Until next month, at least - June 18 to be exact. Then Zazula will be sent home along with dozens of other LAUSD adult school special ed teachers until the second week of September - about three months.

For the first time in 20 years, there will be no summer classes for developmentally disabled adults and seniors because of the budget crisis.

Sure, the financial hit is going to hurt, Zazula says, but that's not the main story here. The people he teaches are.

"My people matter, and for anyone to say they don't, whatever the reason, is wrong," the Bronx, N.Y.-born teacher says.

"These people were born into a world where they are not as fortunate as the rest of us. They need our continued support. Now that there's a budget crisis we're going to forget about them?"

When push came to shove, the district had some tough financial choices to make. Nobody's arguing that.

But it rankles many that the developmentally disabled and senior citizen classes got the axe for three months, while English-as-second-language classes survived the summer.

It all comes down to something called "measurable outcomes," according to district officials.

ESL is a tier one program, meaning enough educational improvements have been shown to make it eligible for more federal and state funding.

The developmentally disabled adult and senior citizen classes are tier two - "lower on the totem pole for funding," said an adult school official who asked not to be identified.

In other words, they don't pay as well for their supper.

Zazula's not buying it. "Why ESL classes all year and not the disabled? We don't matter anymore?

"For 27 years I've taught my people with passion and I'm going to fight for them the same way."

PC be damned.