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Saturday, January 27, 2007
Grand day for students with special needs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s a rare treat to be present when the Earth moves, when change comes to an institution that has clung to yesterday despite the collapse and transformation of the world it served.
That happened last week in a committee room across the street from the Georgia Capitol. The institution of public education, protected always by the turf-defending warriors of the status quo, shifted slightly in a new direction Thursday. The Senate Education and Youth committee approved and sent to the Senate floor a bill authored by President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah). The full Senate is likely to act this week.
There’s nothing radical about the bill, the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act. It would give choice — and the state and federal money being used to educate them — to parents to buy the special education services their child needs. They could spend the money, expected to average about $9,000, in the private sector or in another public school system. If parents are content with the services the public school is providing, they are free to remain. It’s honest-to-goodness choice.
But the scholarships threaten because they are seen as a precursor to a full-scale voucher offering — something I support, but, as Johnson pointed out, key Republicans, including State School Superintendent Kathy Cox, don’t. (Johnson acknowledges that he supports a broader use of vouchers than the bill could be accused of offering.)
If you wanted to see in one afternoon the defining philosophical difference between those who have run Georgia and those who are now in power, it was here, in this committee and in the hall outside. After testifying in support of the bill, Johnson stood outside, facing skeptical reporters and angry or nervous advocates.
This is a scene where former House Speaker Newt Gingrich excelled. Gingrich knew what he believes. He’d thought it through. He understood the ramifications. And he never retreats from his position. That was Johnson Thursday, and it should be the role model for the conservative majority in Georgia. When conservatives employ the buzzwords or phrases — “user fees” is one, local control is another — and apply them to mask the cost and expansion of government, it’s immature or misguided conservatism.
The proper course is the one Johnson sets in this bill. Believe in the free market, believe in choice, believe in giving parents the tools to help them take responsibility for their children, and create government in that image. That is exactly what the Special Needs Scholarship Act does.
Johnson was not shy in defending the bill, even when opponents rushed to inject the v-word — which under the prior regime was the kiss of death.
“There’s nothing dirty about the v-word,” Johnson asserted. “Somebody decided vouchers are bad for public education, but it’s not bad” for the HOPE voucher program, which on Thursday was being celebrated by Gov. Sonny Perdue and former U.S. Sen. Zell Miller for having aided a million Georgians to attend college. Nor is voucher a dirty word when public funds are used to buy pre-k services from public and private providers, he noted. Nor was it when used to send GIs to college after military service. Medicaid is a voucher, he said. And food stamps. And vouchers exist, too, for housing.
It’s acceptable, therefore, to offer vouchers that give people a choice of food, medical care. Pre-k is acceptable, too, and post-high school. But not in between. Only about 5 percent of Georgia’s special needs children are likely to take scholarship — or voucher, depending on what you call the HOPE stipend.
The arguments against the Johnson bill come from the alphabet groups that stalk the legislative halls, often during the former regime terrorizing any legislator who dared to propose real reform: GSSA, GSBA, PAGE, GPTA, GCASE, GAMSP, GAESP, GAE, GAEL, GACIS — the school superintendents, school board members, teachers unions and others. It’s a formidable, often self-interested network that one day will own this legislature, just as it did the old one.
Jamie Self, vice president for public policy of the Georgia Family Council, spoke marvelously, dispelling an argument against such programs — that parents aren’t smart enough to evaluate alternative schools.
“Many parents are well aware of the many arguments made here today by the education establishment — and they are insulted,” said Self. “These parents are experts in their children, in their child’s disabilities, in the laws regulating schools and in the offerings of neighboring school systems or private schools.
“The message from these parents is, ‘give us a little credit.’ “
• Jim Wooten is associate editor of the editorial board. His column appears Sunday, Tuesdays and Fridays.
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