Protect state services
Last week, civilized people all over the country were shocked to learn that a group of teenagers bound and gagged a young man with special needs and forced him to denounce Donald Trump and white people in general.
Beyond being humiliated about topics he knows nothing about, the man was beaten so badly that, according to reports, the bones of his skull were revealed.
Just for a moment, let’s take race out of the picture and focus on the real problem.
The real problem is that this group of teenagers found an easy target — a young man with disabilities, who happened to find himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Chicago police reported that he had been reported missing prior to the attack.
All over the country, academics and activists have been clamoring to “integrate” people with disabilities into the wider community. They argue that if the rest of us would simply have more interaction with people with disabilities, we would welcome them into our neighborhoods, workplaces and lives.
However, their intent goes much further than simply encouraging people to “act more friendly” to this group of citizens. Instead, the intention is to achieve integration at all costs by closing group homes, state facilities and sheltered workshops that provide much-needed services and protection to the most vulnerable people.
The results have been universally awful. States that have closed sheltered workshops, for example, have found that up to 75% or more of these people wind up worse off in terms of job security. Furthermore, the rush to close facilities or group homes has left families scrambling to find suitable replacements.
So what can good-hearted citizens do to make sure this outrageous attack is turned into something positive for people with disabilities?
I suggest that people contact their representatives to protest the following three regulations and legislation:
1) Demand that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services eliminate regulation 1915c, which mandates that sheltered workshops prove they are “integrated” in the community. If this regulation is not eliminated, between 250,000 and 400,000 of the most vulnerable people — and their families — all over the country (and upwards of 10,000 in Wisconsin), will see their lives and livelihoods permanently harmed.
2) Undo Section 511c of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. This provision forces all youth with disabilities aged 25 and under into a “community integrated employment” track, whether they want this option or not.
The problem is that in most cases, people age out of the school system at 21. They must then go through intense “career counseling” and “prove” that they have “failed” to find work in the community three to four times, and have their “file closed” by the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation before they can even be considered for a sheltered workshop.
This means that someone who is nonverbal, cannot use the restroom or eat on his own, who has limited mobility must wait at least four years after high school before the government deems him eligible to attend a sheltered workshop, which is voluntary to begin with. This is a bad law and must be repealed. Let people have a choice in where they want to work.
3) Fight T.I.M.E. Act (S. 2001/HR 188), which seeks to undo a waiver in the Fair Labors and Standards Act that allows workers with disabilities to be paid commensurate, special minimum wages for some types of work.
Of all the employers in the country making use of this waiver, 90% or more are sheltered workshops. The waiver allows workshops to provide competitive bids, and obtain work for their clients. Eliminating this waiver will destroy workshops all over the country, because it will price them out of the market.
In short, more than a matter of race, the brutal attack in Chicago is proof — that our society must continue to provide protections for our most vulnerable citizens. Fighting these three examples of government overreach is an excellent way to begin.