Can we afford special education?
Many years ago Maryland reimbursed the local districts based on a per pupil allowance depending on the disability. In fact, local districts got $500 for each “retarded” student (MR that’s what they were called in the “70’s) and $1000 for each student with learning disabilities (LD). When the bounty changed to allow so much more for LD kids, at least one county in Maryland retested all of its MR students and sooo surprisingly found that the vast majority of those kids were really learning disabled. And now the school district would get much more money.
The per pupil by disability code funding changed and counties were given lump sums of money depending on the number of students with disabilities who were in their child counts. Recently the geniuses behind the funding formula have determined that it costs less to educate a child with a speech issue than it does to educate a child with multiple disabilities and contrary to the common wisdom the bulk funding does not even out to cover all students with disabilities. So Maryland did what all smart politicians do; they hired the American Institutes for Research to do a study. The study mandated by the legislature will recommend a new funding formula for the local districts.
Public schools have lost 11,000 students this school year. These kids are not likely to be kids with disabilities. So with expectations that the number of students with disabilities will remain roughly the same and with the total number of students going down, kids with disabilities now represent a larger percentage of the total student body.
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which is putting billions of dollars into education, does not mention special needs kids at all. The research group has determined that differentiated funding for special ed is the way to go. All things old are new again.
Fifty years ago the federal government pledged to pay 40% of the cost of educating kids with disabilities. So far that number has reached between 5-7%, but no higher.
An interesting fact is that because of the non-public funding formula, it actually costs a local school system less to send a child to The Harbour School than it does to educate the child in the local system and the child will benefit from smaller class sizes and all related services.
Can we afford to provide special education to all of our children with disabilities, really depends on when you ask.
When I testified @ both Kirwan and to the budget committee I showed them how to fix the budget process and fund education; no one was listening let alone “hearing” me. The Unions, special interests and NGOs all had/have their hands out for $ and there will never be enough for their insatiable desire for $! Actually funding solutions that work and teaching excellence who cares right? Its just money! It’s not kids lives and future right! Corrupted system in Md.
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