Amy P sent me a link to a NRO article on Sarah Palin's speech on special education. The editors at NRO conclude that vouchers are the solution for the inadequacies in special education in public schools. While I very much appreciate the national attention to issue of special education, I strongly believe that vouchers for special education would be a very bad idea.
The main problem is politics. Special education costs a lot of money. My district has to spend a small fortune to ship my kid out-of-district to a program that is set up to deal with his very special needs. The program that he's in has a very high teacher to student ratio. The teachers and aides receive special training. He's very bright, but can't focus in a large group setting. So, he and two other students are pulled to the back of the room where they go through a normal first grade curriculum. He gets special help with his speech and handwriting in a one-on-one setting. Another expert teaches him how to control his frustration and respond appropriately to daily demands. And we've seen real results from all this attention. When he's able to improve his focus and reduce his frustration, he'll be mainstreamed and will have the same shot at a fulfilling life as any other kid.
However, all that attention is very pricy. How pricy? I'm not going to tell you. If the public was aware of how expensive his program was, there is no way that they would agree to pay for it. It works in our favor that the dollar amount for his education is a closely guarded secret among administrators. The seniors in our town continually vote down every school budget. They would explode if they knew the price tag on my kid's school. All those people who think that disabilities are the product of bad parenting would never agree to spend more on his education than any other kid.
There are other smaller problems. I don't want my kid in a private school. Right now, his program is located in a regular public school and he interacts with regular kids during lunch, recess and library. I don't want him hidden away in a private school somewhere, where he would be isolated and forgotten.
While I'm no fan of Palin, I am a big fan of Trig. I want that little boy to be embraced by the community in a common school and to have the fullest attention from a range of teachers. I believe that vouchers for special education would mean a cut in funding and isolation.
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