Palin Derangement Syndrome Watch: Daily Kos and CNN

The latest attempt to smear Governor Palin comes from Night Runner at Daily Kos (with an assist from CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, according to Brian Faughnan of the Weekly Standard Blog (I don’t watch CNN much these days).

To hear NR@DK and O’Brien tell it, Palin “cut the Special Education (Budget) by 62%.”  Here’s the justification DK uses for this smear:

For those of you who seem so enamored with Gov. Sarah Palin, it might be worth noting that she oversees the budget for the Department of Education and Early Development Special Schools in Alaska. 

These funds provide supplementary educational services to students with severe disabling conditions and the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy. The resident school where the child would normally be placed does not have the resources to provide an adequate educational program. Without the supplementary services the child’s needs would not be met by the local school district in most cases. 

The following programs are included within this component: Special Education Service Agency (SESA)

   The Annual budget for 2007, which preceded Gov. Palin was $8,265,300.

   http://www.gov.state.ak.us/… (RWL note: Broken link)

   The Annual budget for 2008, enacted by Gov. Palin is $3,156,000.

   http://www.gov.state.ak.us/… (RWL note: Broken link again)

   The Annual budget for 2009, enacted by Gov. Palin is $3,156,000.

   http://www.gov.state.ak.us/… (RWL note: Broken link again again)

   This is a cut in special needs services to children in Alaska of 5,109,300 , or 62%.

Now, Faughnan does a pretty decent job responding to this crap, but because I saw the per student funding level and skipped the words “per student,” I initially thought Palin would need a better defense (sorry, Brian).  So I did a little more digging, and I found that Night Runner is an idiot, and O’Brien (for lapping this up) is lazy and unprofessional.

I started with the FY07 budget for Special Schools (that was Murkowski’s last budget year). Indeed, Special Schools received $8,265,300.  Now, one thing to keep in mind: this budget included the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy, which NR@DK referenced earlier.

Next up is the FY08 operating budget, and indeed, it only shows $3,156,000.  Here’s the part DK and O’B forgot to mention: the Alaska Challenge Youth Academy is a separate line item in the operating budget – to the tune of $5,709,000.  The funds total $8,865,000, an 7.26% increase, not a 62% cut.

The FY09 Operating Budget has the same separation.  Add them together again, and you have $9,214,900, 3.95% more than FY08 and 11.49% more than FY07.  Again, not a 62% cut.

This is something the NR@DK could have easily checked just by looking at the Alaska State Budget website and making a few clicks.  Ms. O’Brien could have also checked this out in less than an hour if she had bothered to actually work at her craft rather than ball up bad numbers from Daily Kos and fling them with glee on unsuspecting campaign officials.

So, what we have learned?  That Governor Palin did not cut special needs education funding, that DK still spews out sludge, that CNN has joined MSNBC (and many others) in sinking to the nut-roots’ level.