NORTHRIDGE : Advocates for Deaf Honor Legislator

As head of the Assembly Education Committee, Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont) has been in the eye of this year’s storm over education reform.

Eastin incurred the wrath of supporters of a proposal to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District after she halted pro-breakup bills in her committee. And she’s no friend to those who support Proposition 174, the school voucher initiative. She is considering a run for the state’s top education post.

But none of these issues was of primary concern to the dozen people who gathered around her Tuesday at Cal State Northridge.

Instead, this group of mostly deaf and hard-of-hearing people see Eastin as a crusader for their cause. Eastin was awarded a plaque naming her “Legislator of the Year” by representatives of the Coalition of Agencies Serving the Deaf, in a short ceremony at the college, home to the National Center on Deafness.

The coalition, which included representatives from the California Assn. of the Deaf and the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness, has counted on Eastin’s support for two measures.

One, a measure to make it easier for deaf people to be certified as teachers, was signed by the governor earlier this fall, said Eastin consultant, Ann Evans. The other, a “bill of rights” for deaf people, is still pending.

Speaking through an American Sign Language translator, Sheri Farinha Mutti, executive director of the Northern California Center on Deafness, praised Eastin as “a fighter” who has tried to assure equal access to education for all children, including deaf children.

Eastin used the occasion to attack the voucher initiative as an assault on the common good. Instead of fleeing to private schools with the state’s aid, she said, the public should commit to making a long-term investment in public vocational education, school technology and school counseling, as well as services for deaf and disabled students.

She said that the voucher initiative if passed would particularly hurt disabled and special education students because they would have fewer choices.

Eastin drew applause from the group when she apologized, through a translator, for not giving her acceptance speech in sign language. “Every child should be bilingual,” she declared, “and one of the languages offered to them to learn should be American Sign Language.”