Special-education spending can’t keep rising without crowding out spending for mainstream students, writes Rick Hess. In a follow-up post, he prints a principal’s point of view:
At our school, we spend about twice the money given to us by the government for special education students. That extra 100% comes directly from the general operating funds. For example, when a child enrolled in our school with a need for a one-on-one adult assistant, I had to cancel the after-school tutoring that served about 60 low-income students who were behind grade level in reading and math.Budgets are simple math. You get X dollars. If you have to spend $30,000 per year on an adult assistant for one child you must cut $30,000 from other programs. I get about $8000 to educate one child for an entire year. So this child is using up his money, and the money allotted for 3.5 additional children. When we have the annual meeting to discuss what support an individual special needs child should have, we are forbidden by law to discuss or take into account the cost of the services being discussed. That is crazy.
The federal mandates and the extra spending don’t guarantee students will learn, Hess adds.
An education consultant who’s also the mother of a special-needs child laments the money spent on meetings to discuss her child’s reading problem. A voucher for a private school specializing in teaching “students with learning differences” would have been a lot cheaper and more effective, she writes.
Despite pandering to the special-ed lobby, Education Secretary Arne Duncan mentioned reining in special-ed spending in his “New Normal” speech, notes Mike Petrilli on Flypaper.
Oregon, among other states, has managed to trim its special education budget this year (maybe by intervening earlier when kids are struggling to read?). And yet doing so violates federal “maintenance of efforts” requirements. (Yes, Uncle Sam has actually made it illegal for states to handle sped more efficiently and thus lower spending.) So Oregon needs a waiver from the Secretary or else could lose millions in federal dollars; he should grant it, and send along a “thank-you” note to boot.
“Let’s talk bluntly about the laws, policies, and practices that can help educators spend limited resources in a way that’s fair to all our kids,” writes Hess.
-->Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Arne Duncan, Oregon, special education, spending, voucher
Katharine Beals says: December 1, 2010 at 8:11 amMy son is one reason why special ed is so expensive. In his current “inclusion” environment he’s got two adults assigned to him all day long, one for behavioral issues, another for academic support. Were the Philadelphia School District to offer classes specifically for its high functioning, mathematically gifted autistic students, I’d choose that alternative in a heartbeat. Besides saving precious resources for others, this would substantially improve my son’s own school experience. He would be more likely to receive appropriate instruction, more likely to be engaged in classroom activities and therefore not acting up, and more likely to have opportunities to socialize with peers (his neuro-typical peers want nothing to do with him).
Tina Underwood says: December 1, 2010 at 9:01 amI have two sons, one receives special education services and one does not.
I completely understand the difficult financial decisions the principal has to make. It’s horrid that 60 low-income students are not receiving much needed services because of a $30K shortfall, BUT the problem is the under-funding of special education NOT the cost of special education. It is wrong to blame special education for the lack of funds.
If there weren’t laws regarding special education, administrators would always cut the programs that benefit fewer students, i.e. special education. It’s called the tyranny of the majority.
momof4 says: December 1, 2010 at 9:24 amI think that fewer kids would need spec ed for “learning disabilities” if schools made better curriculum choices in ES-MS reading and math. Lots of kids fall through the cracks with “balanced literacy” and the various fuzzy math programs. Better instructional methods would help also; lots of kids are unable to discover their own math facts and algorithms, groupwork likely means pooling their ignorance, and both are highly inefficient.
Also, ed schools are not doing a decent job of ensuring that spec ed teachers have the necessary knowledge and skills. I speak as a relative of a dyslexic kid for whom the school’s spec ed teachers simply gave her answers, since they had no idea how to teach her suitable strategies. After several – very expensive- years of private tutoring, she learned suitable strategies and entered MS needing no spec ed assistance and is now successful in college.
It is pretty radioactive to mention, but there is also a huge amount of money being spent at the bottom of the curve, on kids whose cognitive, emotional and/or physical deficits are so great that they will always require custodial care and therefore should never enter the educational system at all. Assistance with respite care/personal hygiene/feeding etc. should be handled through HHS, not education. The next group above that is unable to handle abstractions and should not be in a regular academic placement, but in special programs designed to their abilities and prepare them for employment.
Tex says: December 1, 2010 at 11:21 am“I think that fewer kids would need spec ed for “learning disabilities” if schools made better curriculum choices in ES-MS reading and math. Lots of kids fall through the cracks with “balanced literacy” and the various fuzzy math programs. Better instructional methods would help also; lots of kids are unable to discover their own math facts and algorithms, groupwork likely means pooling their ignorance, and both are highly inefficient.”
Amen! If our school had provided direct instruction in flexible proficiency grouping classes, I probably would not have pushed to have my D classified special ed. Instead, the school spent all sorts of resources to pull out my D for special instruction in small groups. Meanwhile, she would also need extra help to keep up with lessons she would miss when she was pulled out. what a mess.
My school district has a reputation for very good special ed services, but there have been plenty of times when I demonstrated more knowledge about special ed aw, testing and instructional methods than they did. Of course, it’s often to their advantage to act dumb about these matters, since most parents will usually not challenge them very vigorously.
Crimson Wife says: December 1, 2010 at 11:54 amI think we need to end the “free” part of the FAPE mandate and start charging parents on a sliding scale for special ed. Affluent families are gaming the current system and charging them their fair share of the excess costs would do a lot to end that kind of abuse.
mazenko says: December 1, 2010 at 2:13 pmSpecial education costs are at the crux of the debate and the misunderstanding of school funding. For years now, critics in the business world have argued that education spending has increased exponentially with no clear increases in results – they believe they’re not getting any more bang for the buck. The problem has long been that spending increased for special education in ways that aren’t going to produce standardized results, especially from testing.
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