I think perhaps the Board may want it to seem as if it is being sued by activists rather than by a parent whose daughter is disabled. In any case, here is the testimony Egan gave last night:

I urge you to accept the Petition and rescind high stakes testing as a graduation requirement for the class of 2014 and beyond.

1. My daughter is a member of the class of 2014 and a person who was born with Down syndrome.  Throughout her academic career in RI public schools, she has been in an inclusive educational model learning side by side with peers without intellectual disabilities.   Her aim has been in sync with her peers – earn a diploma and head out towards adulthood as a member of her community.

2. Like all her peers in school, she took NECAP tests.  However, unlike the peers without intellectual disabilities, even with her best efforts on these standard tests, she did not attain a score of partial proficiency in math or reading.  Now she retakes the tests twice more but the high stakes test will be an insurmountable barrier to a diploma and the next stage of life in an inclusive world and community.

3. Our state is in the national spot light today because of the Department of Justice settlement forcing the shut down of discriminatory practices relating to the treatment of persons with disabilities.   Employment First policy is being implemented and young adults with intellectual disabilities are finally getting the opportunity to be a part of our state’s work force.   We hear endless stories of adults with Down syndrome working successfully in jobs that require a high school diploma.  These jobs fuel the economy as well as bring pride, social engagement and economic freedom to these individuals.

4. The RIDE high stakes testing policy flies in the face of Employment First and preclude individuals like my daughter from performing any of the wide range of entry level jobs that require, or simply prefer, candidates with a high school diploma.   Unless RIDE rescinds the high stakes test policy, young adults in Rhode Island will be shut out of an array of employment opportunities for which they are qualified based on their skills and abilities – is that a result we want?

Thank you for your considerations.

Tina Egan

a teacher at Cumberland High School, a past President of the Cumberland Teachers Association, former State Representative for the Edgewood and Pawtuxtet neighborhoods in Cranston, and for the last 23 years a staff organizer at NEARI, where I got to work with him for the last 7 years.

In every single meaning of the phrase, Jerry Egan is a working class hero.  Hundreds…thousands of people across the state, without even knowing it, benefitted from the work that he did, both as a legislator and more importantly as a Union organizer.   As we learned of Jerry’s passing from lymphoma at the age 68 yesterday morning, the NEARI office began to reflect of our favorite Jerry stories.  They all begin with the story of Jerry in some kind of a jam – with a school committee, or the legislative leadership, or on a picket line—but they all end with laughter and smiles because he just had this way of not caring about what the politic or politically correct thing, or even the easy thing, to do was.  Just the right thing.  And that’s why so many people loved him.

It is Jerry’s big heart — his do anything for his fellow Union members approach to life that he will be most remembered for.  I will always remember one time when he sent out a call for picket line support for some members up in New Hampshire who were going to be picketing an event on a Sunday morning at 7AM in the middle of winter.  Jerry, who had a hard time breathing, especially in the cold, met me at a Dunkin Donuts in Rhode Island and the two of us drove 4 hours through an ice storm to walk a line in the freezing cold for people we didn’t know for a cause we knew little about other than the call went out and people needed our support.  That’s just the type of guy he was.

Jerry was the president of the staff union for myself and my co-workers at NEARI and was on the committee that interviewed me when I applied for the job I was eventually hired for at NEARI.  I can honestly say he changed my life forever.  I never got a change to say this before he died, but thanks Brother.  In the words of our homeland ……..Tiocfaidh ár lá!

His funeral will be Saturday at 8:00 am from the Frank P. Trainor & Sons Funeral Home, 982 Warwick Avenue, Warwick. Mass of Christian Burial in St. Michael Church 239 Oxford St., Providence at 9 am. Calling Hours Friday 3-8 pm. In lieu of flowers donations in his memory to St. Michael Church or the Dana Farber Cancer Institute P.O. Box 849168 Boston, MA 02284 will be appreciated. Burial with military honors will be in the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery.