Former House Speaker Jim Black’s controversial program to help children get screened for vision problems appears to be going out with a whimper.

The state budget proposals of the House and Gov. Mike Easley would eliminate the remaining $500,000 in funding for the program, reports Dan Kane. Easley’s budget proposal said the program drew little use in the two years since its creation.

The vision care program began as a mandate on parents to have their children seen by an optometrist before they entered kindergarten. The requirement caused an uproar after Black wrote it into the 2005 budget.

Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, was an optometrist and his colleagues were a key source for political contributions. One of the scandals that eventually led to his downfall involved optometrists writing campaign contribution checks with the payee line blank so that Black and others could determine who they should go to.

More after the jump.

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