AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2007 > February > 21 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USVouchers: At What Cost?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Georgia House of Representatives subcommittee will continue to hear testimony this afternoon on two bills that would give state-funded scholarships (or vouchers) to students with disabilities who want to leave their current public schools.
According to my colleague, Kevin Duffy, who has been covering the hearings, critics cut down the proposals in the first House meeting on the legislation.
Of course, the merits of the plan have been debated in the pages of the AJC and on this blog before. But some interesting arguments surfaced in the subcommittee, including concern that students who no longer need special services — say, a first-grader who overcomes a stuttering problem — could remain in the program until they graduate from high school.
Supporters have argued that special-needs kids are getting short-changed educationally and they need the opportunity to attend campuses — public or private — better designed to address their specific learning needs. But, currently, there’s no provision in either bill (a Senate version and a House version) to require annual checks to see whether they still need those special services.
Anyone out there consider this a potentially costly loophole, or is this an acceptable side effect of giving more parents the option of sending their children to private schools?
Comments
By Jeff
February 21, 2007 1:14 PM | Link to this
Sounds like an expensive loophole to me…..
By jim d
February 21, 2007 1:39 PM | Link to this
Don’t these kids have a regular IEP evaluation?
By IC
February 21, 2007 1:51 PM | Link to this
education crossblog
http://www.accessatlanta.com/entertainment/content/shared-blogs/accessatlanta/tv/entries/2007/02/21/test.html
By catlady
February 21, 2007 2:08 PM | Link to this
How does this play in with the changes in SST/sp ed? At our school it now takes an act of Congress to get a child tested for sp ed, and to get them placed is next to impossible. You see, if we change the expectations (meeting their needs, accomodations, etc) and they are successful, even if it is merely being able to hold a pencil for a 5th grader, they are not eligible for testing/placement. So, except for kids who have already got that precious special ed diagnosis, the kids would not be elibible for the vouchers anyway.
By Bridget Gutierrez
February 21, 2007 2:20 PM | Link to this
jim d: If a student takes the voucher to attend a private school, his or her IEP would no longer apply. That’s because, under the proposals, scholarship families would give up their rights under the federal special education law.
This passage is included in both bills: “Acceptance of a scholarship shall have the same effect as a parental refusal to consent to services pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.”
By Ernest
February 21, 2007 2:26 PM | Link to this
This sounds like a loophole to me also. Who and how will ‘eligible private schools’ be determined? Why not include language that JimD suggested, the annual IEP evaluations be done. What disabilities are eligible for this? Questions, questions, questions….
By Gail
February 21, 2007 2:37 PM | Link to this
There is a list of the eligible disabilities in the senate bill. I think the list is the same one as the school systems have for eligible children.
I get the example about stuttering going away, but my child has a brain injury, and unfortunately, I haven’t yet had a doctor tell me THAT’s going away. (tongue-in-cheek) I think it’s just an excuse the anti-voucher people are using. There are plenty of special needs kids out there with permanent disabilities.
These vouchers are important and I hope the legislation passes, because I will be hightailing it wherever I need to to get one for my child.
By catlady
February 21, 2007 2:58 PM | Link to this
Bridget, what happens when the parents are dissatisfied and want to come back into the public system? Is the IEP reinstated? Do we collect the money given the private school? (From whom?) what if parents want to see-saw back and forth, as quite a few of them do here if their children are not “happy” at one school?
By catlady
February 21, 2007 3:01 PM | Link to this
Will gifted kids, who are also getting special education, be eligible for these vouchers? (If not, why not?) I have said for years that gifted kids should have IEPs also. Would ESOL kids be eligible until their English is acceptable ?(if so, there are a lot of our native kids that would be eligible for a long time, as they don’t speak or (seemingly) understand English very well.)
By Gail
February 21, 2007 3:18 PM | Link to this
Catlady From what I understand, after school attendance has been verified, the school tuition check would be mailed quarterly to the parent but made out to the school, so if the child is no longer enrolled, the school can’t cash the check, nor could the parent.
The legislation says a prior year IEP is required for eligibility for the voucher.
By Bridget Gutierrez
February 21, 2007 3:19 PM | Link to this
catlady: Many of the details of how the plan would work in specific scenarios, such as the one you’re suggesting, have yet to be spelled out. Most likely, lawmakers will leave those kinds of questions to the State Board of Education to answer.
By JustMe
February 21, 2007 3:38 PM | Link to this
It is my understanding that this is the brief summary of history of special ed students:
Not allowed in schools at all. Mostly confined to institutions.
Heavily medicated with some in institutions, some at home.
Some allowed in public schools with medications.
All required in public schools in their own special class.
Most required to be included in reg. classes.
And now, the special ed students want more money and more special accommodations? I don’t see an end here. Does anyone?
By SET
February 21, 2007 4:09 PM | Link to this
It’s wrong to spend the kind of money we are spending on special ed at the expense of normal students. But that is a political decision best left to the localities and not imposed on them by the Feds. If the state and local politicians want to allocate resources a certain way, it’s their money and their kids. By the same principal the locality should be free to not spend a hugely disproportionate amount on special ed.
Currently I believe the federal regs the state schools live by seem to impose unlimited mandated services.
By erica
February 21, 2007 4:24 PM | Link to this
Whaaaat! Special ed kids under-served? Heavens to Betsy! In this NCLB environment they get more teacher attention than any other group and far more money. They are protected by federal law to the point that a teacher can hardly sneeze in a classroom that includes a special ed kid without filling out a form.
The kids that are truly under-served are gifted children. They are expected to hide in the corner with a book or sit around and twiddle their thumbs while the bottom 9/10 of the bell curve catches up. If they are lucky they get to be tutors to others in the class, although last I checked they aren’t getting paid for these services. Being forced to work without pay is slavery last I checked. ….And people wonder why the dropout and suicide rates of gifted kids are sky high.
Instead of doing the school’s teaching for free, they should be learning things that they don’t already know. Why are gifted kids denied an appropriate education when they are the ones that will drive the economy.
It is gifted children that truly need the vouchers and allowing them to get out of the oppressive environment known as gubment schools may be the only way to save this country
By Gail
February 21, 2007 4:24 PM | Link to this
Unfortunately, I’m on my way out, but I want to comment on JustMe’s last comment. I think that the problem is that the public schools in general do not know how to meet the special education needs of “different” students. And I guess because of the number of students, they keep looking for a one-size-fits-all model that doesn’t exist.
When I was in school 30 years ago, one student’s parents had to fight to get him included in regular classes. He was assigned to special ed because of a physical disability that had nothing to do with his ability to do schoolwork. That’s an extreme example, and now it looks like we are going the other way because schools place kids that really should be in a separate classrooms in with everybody else.
What I don’t understand is why the schools can’t find the happy medium so each special ed student can get what s/he needs. Of course, IEPs are supposed to do that, but the schools are still lumping groups of kids together.
This is why the private school vouchers are a good idea. At least spreading the kids out who need special attention may mean more students can get their individual needs met.
I’ll be back tomorrow.
By JustMe
February 21, 2007 4:54 PM | Link to this
Gail, So you want to provide what ever special ed students need? What about regular ed students? What about gifted students?
The reason that so many here are mad about this is because special ed already consumes more than their share of resources - to include money, teacher time, class time, teacher effort, and so on. Now, we want to provide them with even more? And at what expense?
I am not unsympathetic to special ed students. However, we CANNOT sacrifice the needs of everyone else just to satisfy their needs!
Giving them special vouchers will be an increased burden on COST to our public school systems. Subtract those voucher amounts from the school system budgets and see what is left over for every one else!
By luvs2teach
February 21, 2007 5:07 PM | Link to this
I don’t think this is a bad plan (although I do think some of the questions raised here are valid).
For those of you concerned about the cost, I actually think this could be a cost cutter, and for those of you concerned about the on-level kids, I think this would allow them to have more attention.
I think this would be a cost cutter because the cost of the voucher is probably less than the school is spenting on that child - per child spending is an average, and some special ed kids, due to smaller classes end up costing more. for example, I had a student a couple years ago who had his own personal parapro - all day - to the tune of some $13,000 per year. On-level students would have more attention because the regular ed teacher could focus on their needs instead of spreading herself thin, accomodating and differentiating.
The gifted issue is so funny - in some counties gifted kids are treated very well - lots of money, lots of extras - in other counties they are merely unpaid tutors.
By catlady
February 21, 2007 6:01 PM | Link to this
I am aware of a situation where a T7 teacher with 25 years’ experience ($60,000 per year plus benefits) and a parapro had charge over 3 students. (Counting benefits, maybe $110,000 per year?) The students, all nonverbal, also had “speech” therapy, 2 kinds of rehab therapy, SSI payments to their parents, free health and dental care, and handicapped stickers for their parents’ cars (they were not mobility impaired). But the gifted kids had to beg for space and time and a teacher. Now, I am not meaning to say anything about the pain of having a child with special needs (which is frequently overwhelming) , but it seems like we need to reconsider our use of resources,sometimes, for maximum return. None of our kids should have nearly unlimited access to services while others do not. It is an issue of fairness and of using our money wisely for the greatest amount of good for the largest number of people.
Luvs, remember, that “on level” teachers will still be dealing with ESOL kids and many kids who cannot any longer qualify for sp ed because of the more restrictive guidelines. They will still be BD or LD or MID, or MOID, but won’t qualify for services and will still be in your room, with your average, widely-dispersed-skills kids. So I don’t see it helping the average kids much at all (I may be wrong). And it opens up so many other cans of worms on accountability, wise use of money, etc. I have quite a few parents that I would not trust to make good decisions driving my car, much less chosing a good learning environment for their child. On the flip side, we also see parents who might do a great job finding a more appropriate school.
Anyone wonder how these vouchers, if okayed, would change the price of private education (a la HOPE)? I am pretty sure it would up the ante for everyone.
By erica
February 21, 2007 6:08 PM | Link to this
luv - That is why gifted children desperately need the vouchers. If the school systems are afraid that they will lose the kids that pull up their test scores, they will finally be forced to serve them b/c the schools will not want to lose their “free tutoring staff.”
I would love nothing better than to be able to dangle a voucher above the heads of some of these “holier than thou” administrators. …Or some of those teachers that tell me how fulfilling it is for my kid to tutor the special ed child in the class(who can’t seem to learn anything she tries to teach) EVERY DAY. She is sick of it and is terribly frustrated. Again, forced work without pay is slavery.
You know, I just had an idea. How about if all the gifted kids in the state bring a wage/hour complaint?
Special ed kids have all sorts of ammunition to get their needS met. Gifted kids have NOTHING and are treated like dirt in most districts.
I feel for special ed kids too, but the vast majority of them are not going to be contributing to our world in a major way. Many of them are wonderful, great kids and are making great strides despite their limitations. However, a kid with an IQ of 60 is not going to discover the cure for AIDS or broker world peace. Then again, a kid with an IQ of 160 who hates learning because of his school experiences is not going to discover a cure for AIDS either. So who will do it?
We are shortchanging the kids that are the key to our future.
By Larry
February 21, 2007 6:47 PM | Link to this
This “loophole” is simply the absence of accountability inherent in all vouchers. Although voucher proponents frequently argue the accountability issue as if it somehow relates to individual parental involvement, it is actually being accountable for their decisions regarding the spending of public tax revenue.
The proposed legislation limits taxpayers’ knowledge of how their money is spent to the assurance that A student is attending A school. The control taxpayers have over how their money is spent is zero, because the people making these decisions are private individuals, not elected officials.
Any type of “fix” is out of the question, since voucher proponents don’t view this as a problem. If they did, they wouldn’t be opposing oversight measures, would they?
By Gail
February 22, 2007 9:24 AM | Link to this
Ok, JustMe, I’m back. First of all, a lot of the reason children are labeled as special ed has to do with the way schools operate. The school system is designed to teach to children with particular strengths, thereby ignoring children with other strengths and consequently making it harder for them. For example, all other things being equal, children who have good language ability will be more successful than kinesthetic learners. This is because of the way instruction is planned. I think this also applies to special ed, but to a lesser degree because some kids have more profound disabilities than others.
Who is to decide what the “fair share” of resources is? All children are different and have different needs. Schools are supposed to provide a free and appropriate education for each child. If your child’s needs are fewer, count yourself as lucky. Your same argument could be made for why gifted children shouldn’t get a lot of expensive extra help. Won’t they be exceeding their fair share?
As far as the cost of vouchers goes, the tuition at the school I’d like to send my child to is about $4000 less than the current per child cost in his school system. So they should save some money.
By Gail
February 22, 2007 9:31 AM | Link to this
I don’t agree with everything about NCLB, but it seems to me that a lot of people are mad about it because the underserved population has changed from special ed and ESOL to gifted.
The real problem is that our schools are mandated to serve every child, but for various reasons, they are unable to do it. School systems spent decades ignoring special ed and other groups, and now that they have to pay attention to them, they’ve starting ignoring gifted students, etc.
The problem is PUBLIC SCHOOLS CAN’T SERVE EVERYBODY. Which makes a great case for private school vouchers for the kids they can’t serve. So why are public school advocates against vouchers?
Let the public schools do what they do well, which is serve large homogenous groups of students (volume), and let the private and other special schools that can deal with more differences serve the kids that don’t fit into the “public school” mold.
By jim d
February 22, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this
Gail,
Actually many of your private school folks also oppose vouchers. They fully understand that along with the vouchers will come a long list of requirements and a loss of control.
By Zoe
February 22, 2007 1:40 PM | Link to this
I taught a collab class a few years ago. The man I co taught with was the Sped teacher, I was the teacher of record. He always said that unless parents of the regular students finally sat up and took notice, Special Ed was going to take over the schools. People are finally noticing just how much Special Ed costs. While it may sound cruel, how many of these children are preemies or children of mothers who took drugs during pregnancy. We look at the mircles of life (for example the baby born at 22 weeks that survived) but no one stops to think of the long term effects this will have on many of these children. Just because we can, does not mean we should. What kind of life are we relagating many of these children to? I am not talking about children with mild disabilities, I am talking about children with severe and profound disabilities that will need to be cared for their entire lives. These children are sent to school because “they deserve an education” however there is not much schools can do for students with disabilities that servere except provide high paying babysitters to change diapers hourly.
By luvs2teach
February 22, 2007 2:22 PM | Link to this
Erica and catlady - posting late, I was trying to keep it short and I maybe glossed over some stuff.
I’m not pro-voucher (I would like more choice, but I don’t see blanket vouchers for all as the answer), but in this particular case, I thought vouchers might be a viable option - I had in mind more profoundly special needs students, or students who disabilities aren’t served well in a public school setting - right now I have a special needs student in the next room banging on the wall - he does it often - luckily I’m on planning, and so it’s only distracting me - but it’s a common occurence during class as well.
My school, despite having a high rate of free-reduced lunch and a large ESOL population failed to make AYP due to the special needs kids - maybe that taints my perception of the situation.
Also, my county in general and my school in particular are very generous to our gifted population - gifted classes offred in every subject, special field trips, etc. A large reason why is precisely what Erica said - to appease the parents of the academically-stronger kids to keep them in our school.
I’m a general ed teacher with an ESOL endorsement, and I find those are my best kids - I don’t consider them as much of a challenge.
As they say…perception is 9/10th of reality!
By Gail
February 22, 2007 2:26 PM | Link to this
jim d: Thanks for the tip. Luckily, the school I’m looking at is in favor of the vouchers. In the current climate of state government, and with a republican-led DOE, I’m not sure that long list of requirements is going to happen. But we’ll see.
I’d rather take my chances since I feel pretty sure that my current options for public school are limited to poor performance, slightly less poor performance and good performance for special ed, but a LONG waiting list before I can get my kid in.
By Lisa B.
February 22, 2007 6:10 PM | Link to this
My sister would use a voucher in a heart beat to get her Down-Syndrome daughter out of her full inclusion classroom. Her family has moved twice to avoid inclusion, but her daughter finally got stuck with inclusion this year. My niece is very sensitive to noise, stimulation, etc. She is having a hard time coping in a class with 28 kids.
My niece doesn’t take the “test” either. It stresses her out so badly, my sister just keeps her out of school that week. Schools scream about that, but it is the parents’ decision.
By vintage t
March 5, 2007 12:57 PM | Link to this
vouchers are the way to go, public schools are not committed to doing all they can. For those middle class parents who are squeezed out of private schools due to there income range and cost of living expenses. I don’t mind driving my kid to school if i can get a better education and future for her. Let’s show support and get this passed as the long term benefits to society will far outweigh any loss of funding in the public school system.