Letter To the Editor...
Dear Friends,
The Consortium for Citizens
with Disabilities (CCD) Education Task Force (of which NACDD is
a Member) and individual national disability organizations are
responding to this extremely disturbing online article in which
the author, Bob Lonsberry, urges the government to eliminate the
Special Education program in the public school system and to remove “handicapped children” from
the classroom.
I encourage all of you to
respond to Lonsberry directly. This kind of ignorance, discrimination,
and hate-mongering must not be allowed to continue. You may also
wish to use our Legislative Action Center on the NACDD website at www.nacdd.org to
alert the media about this alarming message. The article follows
this letter.
To leave a comment with
the author, please visit the link listed below. You will note that
there is a survey on this website regarding the article where readers
are asked whether they agree or disagree with the Lonsberry’s claims. Sadly, as of this moment, 76.22%
of readers claim they AGREE with the author’s stance. It is
enough to make one’s stomach sick! To read the article and
comment, go to the following link: http://www.lonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=1618&go=4
Anne P. Rohall, Esq.
Dir., Government Relations
National Assoc. of Councils on Developmental Disabilities
225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 650-B, Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 739-4400, ext. 4
(703) 739-6030 (fax)
arohall@ nacdd.org
Today’s Column
TIME TO TAKE SPECIAL ED OUT OF SCHOOLS?
Do you know why we have schools?
It’s not for the students. It’s
for the society.
Long ago, when America gradually decided to have public education,
the argument was that public schools would prepare youngsters to
be better citizens. Public education was intended to produce people
who could work and provide for themselves, be good neighbors, obey
the law, take part in a democracy, vote, be smart enough to serve
in the military and on juries, have values and pay taxes.
That was the argument used to get people to swallow school taxes.
That’s why we have school taxes, in fact, instead of tuition.
Instead of the parents of school students paying tuition, we all
pay school taxes. That’s because we all benefit. Even those
whose children have grown and gone, or those who never had children,
all pay school taxes because all benefit from an educated populace.
I bring that up to remind us all of why we have schools. The purpose
of public education is to produce employed, productive, taxpaying
citizens.
It’s not for the students. It’s
for the society.
Which brings us to special education.
I wonder if the time has come to rethink the premise and structure
of special education. I wonder if providing special services to handicapped
children always fits with the purpose of public education and the
taxes which support it.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying handicapped children
shouldn’t be cared for and taught. I’m not arguing for
limiting services or funding.
I’m just wondering if we haven’t
put our eggs in the wrong basket, and hurt the quality of public
education as a result.
Over the years, special education has become the tail that wags
the dog. It consumes larger and larger portions of school budgets,
demands more and more resources and has become increasingly intrusive
in the classroom.
It has also become very
powerful. It is the “growth industry” in
American education, with college programs being designed to prepare
special education teachers and everyone from pharmaceutical companies
and equipment manufacturers teaming up with doctors and parents to
advocate for its interests.
There has also been
a definition creep, as more and more behaviors have been given
special education status, along with traditionally recognized handicaps.
That has dramatically increased the percentage and number of students
who are classified as “special education.”
All of this has come at a cost, at a tremendous cost. Some special
education students are assigned one or more staffers to be with them
all day. Many require special equipment and facilities. Special education
programs typically need additional and specially trained teachers
and therapists and tutors. That has put pressure on already tight
school budgets.
I don’t want to discuss here whether or not those dollars
are well spent, but I do think it’s worth asking if they should
come out of the school budget. Are they truly education dollars?
Is it the best way to handle things to pay for what are essentially
handicapped services out of school taxes?
That gets us back to why we have schools.
If the rationale for school taxes is the preparation of a society
of employed, contributing, taxpaying citizens, to what degree should
we spend those taxes on children who are not apt to contribute to
that goal?
That sounds heartless,
doesn’t it?
But it needs to be asked.
Right now, society does two things on the back of one tax. It funds
handicapped services for children and public education out of a tax
base that was meant to provide for just one. Instead of having an
honest read on how much society wants to pay for handicapped children,
it is hidden away as part of education.
That’s no good
for a variety of reasons.
But one of them is because it shortchanges regular students. In
the commitment to special education, conventional education has been
shortchanged.
Dollars earmarked for education are instead going to what are essentially
handicapped services. And the attention and efforts of teachers are
increasingly absorbed by students who are not apt to ultimately succeed
academically.
And conventional students are being left out.
In classroom after classroom
across America, main-streamed special education students monopolize
teachers and instruction. Even those with special—and expensive—full-time
aides assisting them are disruptive to the other students.
Instead of mainstreaming lifting the weakest of students, it lowers
all the students. It dumbs down the classroom. Students not likely
to succeed get disproportionate resources and attention and those
likely to succeed get the short end of the stick.
Virtually every public
school student and parent can tell you that’s
true.
The current system is wasteful and ineffective. It guts school budgets,
encourages a needlessly expensive special education industry, cheats
regular students and poorly serves handicapped children. It also
makes public schools less likely to achieve their goal, which is
to prepare a population of productive citizens.
Unfortunately, if you criticize this arrangement, you are vilified.
Angry parents with an antagonistic sense of entitlement shrilly demand
an ever greater share of the education budget and effort. Their cries
intimidate critics and persuade school boards. But these parents
and their children are really only pawns in a massive special education
establishment that is all about money and power.
What’s happening
now is bad government. It cheats everyone, including those who
most defend and demand it.
So what’s a better
idea?
Handicapped services should be taken out of the classroom. Separate,
specialized settings paid for by something other than the school
budget. Some of these settings can be in the school, but they should
not typically be in classrooms with regular students. For conventional
and special education youngsters to each achieve the most they can,
their particular abilities must be paired to separate and specialized
programs.
Handicapped children deserve a setting designed to meet their needs,
and conventional students deserve a setting designed to meet their
needs. Education and handicapped services are specialized and different
fields. Cobbling them together is not really working for either,
and an honest society must push past the politically correct criticisms
and find a better way to do both.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2005
