State says 'no' to Funding that would help Deaf School

Florida's state government has said "no" to funding to help the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. The city of St. Augustine, where the school is located requested money to deal with flooding near the campus that has affected class schedules. The campus was shut down and students evacuated when Hurricanes Matthew and Irma came through, according to NEWS-4 out of Jacksonville. Read the full story here.

NTID gets $2.6 million Grant

image of Matthew Dye
from ntid.rit.edu

A federal grant of $2.6 million will be used by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to study the results of cochlear implants. The researcher leading the study, Matthew Dye, says sometimes the results are positive but sometimes "cochlear implant recipients never develop usable speech and oral-language skills." This research is intended to answer the question as to why the outcome varies. It's the first study of its kind to focus on college-age adults, Read more here.

RIT gets financial boost for DeafTEC

The National Science Foundation is giving $4 million to the National Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. The money will go to keep DeafTEC going after a gift of $4.45 million got the project started four years ago. DeafTEC partners "with high schools, community colleges and industry with the goal of building a professional community that will improve access to technological education and employment for deaf and hard-of-hearing students." NTID’s principal investigator on the project is Donna Lange. She says, “DeafTEC’s goal has always been to successfully integrate more deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals into the workplace in highly-skilled technician jobs in which these individuals are currently underrepresented and underutilized." Read the details at RIT.

Gally gets an "A"

Forbes magazine has issued it's annual grades for private college, based on their financial health. Gallaudet University earned an "A" after Forbes looked at its endowment, reserves, assets, surplus, tuition, admission rate and other factors. If you look at how other schools on the list did, you'll see that's a major vote of confidence for the school's financial health. See the list here.

Gally gets grant for new online effort

A grant of a quarter of a million dollars will support Gallaudet University's ASL Connect effort. The funds will come from The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. ASL Connect won't go live until next year, but when it does it will offer online ASL education--including an ASL certificate program, a ASL Placement Test, ASL coaching and tutoring, as well as MOOC (massive open online course) classes and much more. Read more about the grant and ASL Connect here.

Gally Student appeals to Canadian gov. for help

A Canadian student wants help covering his tuition at Gallaudet University. His Manitoba family is appealing to the government to provide funding. CBC news has a video report.

Report: Wasteful spending by the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf

Money wasted distribution free telephone equipment to deaf and hard-of-hearing people in Louisiana. That's the finding of Inspector General Stephen Street whose just released report details "unnecessary spending on contractors and equipment by the Commission for the Deaf." Read the full story here.

TX deaf school could be moved

If someone Texas lawmakers get their way, the grounds in Austin where the state School for the Deaf sits could be sold off to make up for budget losses. State Senator John Whitmire wants the school moved off the 67 acres of land. The Austin Statesmen quotes him as saying to school officials, “You’re sitting on some of the most expensive land in Austin.” Read more here.

New Law Would Create Tax-free Savings Accounts

Congress is considering a bill that would give Americans living with disabilities tax-free savings accounts for long-term expenses. The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act is sponsored by Republican Ander Crenshaw of Florida who is Chairman of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee. In the video below, Rep. Crenshaw speaks to his colleagues on the floor of the House about ABLE.

Theater Funding Cuts led to Protests

Deaf actors and theater companies in the U.K. are upset over government decisions that they say are hurting their craft. Read more here.

Kickstarter Campaign For Broadway Show

Deaf West Theater is launching a Kickstarter Campaign in an effort to raise $25,000 and bring their version of the Broadway rock musical Spring Awakening to the stage. If successful, DWT would present the Tony Award winning musical in a way that would connect the deaf and hearing worlds byperformed simultaneously in Spoken English and ASL. DWT did the same thing a few years ago with Big River. The Kickstarter page is here and below in an introductory video about the effort.

Gallaudet's Endowment

A breakdown of college endowments at hundreds of schools has been released by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Commonfund Institute 2013. Based on this information, a Washington Post analysis of Maryland, Virginia and D.C. colleges related to Endowment dollars per enrolled student puts Gallaudet University at $112,799 per student, giving it a ranking of 12 out 30 area institutions. Read more at the Washington Post here.

Simplified Home Office Deduction

The IRS's new, simplified option for claiming a home office deduction greatly reduces paperwork and recordkeeping, but some restrictions apply. HEre's an ASL video about it.

Education Tax Credits

Find out how you or your child can get a tax credit for going to college or some other post-secondary education institution in this ASL video from the IRS.

Online Payment Agreement

Find out how to make tax payment arrangements online in this IRS video in ASL.

School Cuts Sign Programs

A Canadian college is dropping its ASL and deaf culture studies program as well as its sign language interpretation program. Alberta's Lakeland College will not accept new students into nine programs in all this fall in order to save money. A little more than 100 miles to the west in Edmonton, the University of Alberta will continue offering both programs to students.

Implant Maker reports on profits

Cochlear is reporting that its sales are at record levels - revenue of $391.7 million during the first half of the fiscal year for the Australian company. Net profit after taxes nearly reached $78 million. That's compared to a $20 million loss during the same period during the previous year. Cochlear had a product recall that cost it more than $100 million which you can read about here. Still, the stock fell 7.8% on the profit announcement, since investors had estimated there wold be a report of more than $80 million. Also, the Australian company lost some of its share of the market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa over the past year.

Legal Aid Cut

The legal aid of Royal Asssociation for Deaf people explains in BSL the cuts made to Legal Aid in the UK in the video posted below on DeafNewsToday.com.

Feds Shut down Investment Firm

Back in August we told you about a California man accused of taking money from deaf Christians(you can read more here). Prosecutors say Marc Perlman made false promises, and instead of investing the funds people gave to him, he used most of it to pay personal expenses. A judge has now placed a permanent trading ban on his iGlobal investment firm. Perlman has been ordered to pay a penalty of $1,794,537 and restitution of $598,179.

Changes to State Schools coming

The West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind will get a dramatic overhaul after the State Board of Education put its stamp of approval on a 10 year plan to revamp the programs. More than half of the 19 buildings on campus will be torn down to replace those that are deteriorating and an updated curriculum will be included in the estimated $80 million effort. The school serves about 125 students in Romney.