Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The way Dr. Shannon Karcher sees it, the 84 special needs-focused student in the Bornhava program she runs are pawns in the political gamesmanship being played in Washington centering on the federal government shutdown and President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" agenda.
The true victims, Karcher believes, will be the students if programming has to be scaled back, or cut outright, because of the federal cuts.
Bornhava, based in the Amherst hamlet of Snyder, offers a wide range of special needs programming and services including working with autistic children, those with speech and/or occupational therapy issues and host of other concerns.
Bornhava receives approximately $1 million annually in federal funds and that accounts for one-third of its $3 million yearly budget. Losing those funds will be tough, if not impossible, to replace, Karcher warns.
The current $1 million federal allocation runs out on Nov. 1, meaning draconian-like cuts to Bornhava's services could come in less than two weeks.
The funds, which are funneled through the federal Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, are among those being earmarked by Trump and Republican lawmakers for being eliminated in the "Big Beautiful Bill" package.
"To say it would be catastrophic is an understatement," said Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-Buffalo). "It would leave children and their families out in the cold."
Kennedy worked for nearly a decade as an occupational therapist at Bornhava.
"What goes here is not bloating or wasting federal dollars," Kennedy said. "Cuts, like the Republicans want, are doing noting but robbing these children of their future."