Community care best
Sat, May 30, 2009 Dallas Morning News Letter to the Editor
Community care best
The national trend is to close costly institutions and invest in community services for people with developmental or mental disabilities. However, some states are doing the opposite.
In Texas, $112 million is now being spent to reform state schools instead of planning for careful consolidation and subsequent closure of these facilities.
Research shows that moving people out of segregated living situations into the community has a positive effect on most people who get this opportunity. A basic understanding of civil rights and economics leads to the conclusion that these institutions have outlasted their questionable utility.
They are a shameful relic of failed public policy and outdated attitudes toward people with disabilities.
Robert Stack, Dallas