Task force wants better education for deaf

From: KOB-TV, NM - Nov 13, 2003

By: Associated Press

(Santa Fe-AP) -- A statewide task force wants the state to recruit and train more teachers for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

And it says more of those teachers should come from minority groups and the deaf community.

A report from the panel says New Mexicans with significant hearing loss have an unemployment rate of 64 percent.

Only eight percent of deaf and hard-of-hearing students graduate from college.

In the words of School for the Deaf Superintendent Ronald Stern: “There are a lot of loose ends out there and a lot of lost souls out there who are unaccounted for.”

New Mexico has 530 deaf and hard-of-hearing special-education students between ages three and 22.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)