Michael Paulsen/Houston Chronicle, via Associated Press After several years learning to listen and speak without sign language, four graduates of the Melinda Webb School at the Center for Hearing and Speech in Houston will join mainstream kindergarten classes this fall.Recent protests in Indiana showed today's budget shortfalls fueling an old debate among deaf people and parents of deaf children: Should students be encouraged to sign, at a separate school for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, or should they attend "mainstream" schools and use the so-called listening and spoken language approach? The question becomes urgent as states, under pressure to cut spending, set their sights on expensive state schools for the deaf.
Do states have a moral or legal obligation to provide separate schooling for deaf and hard-of-hearing children who could be "mainstreamed"?
?Read the Discussion ?
Perry A. Zirkel, professor of education and law
Lance T. Izumi, Pacific Research Institute
Sandra Jowers-Barber, historian
Lisa Snell, Reason Foundation
Josh Swiller, author, "The Unheard: A Memoir of Deafness and Africa"
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