SpecEd

Special Education:
A Wall Street Journal headline article spurns this line of thought.

The articles discuss parents disenchantment with special education programs, especially in the regards that the education experience is lacking and many indicate that although their son or daughter received a high school diploma, they did not get the education with it.

Local school systems have major problems with special ed program
1) 14% of all school children are classified as special education, a not negligible number
2) Due to federal mandates, schools must attempt to mainstream these children whenever possible. this is bad policy although good politicxs. The special needs sap energy from the classroom, requiring attention, time, and discipline from the teacher, thus lessening teaching opportunities for the rest of the class.
3) the No child Left Behind requires testing and special ed students count towards the students passing or failing. this is clearly unfair and nonsensical. Most of these students can never reach levels asked of them. They should not be included in the count.
4) Cost is another factor. Typical, federal mandates require school systems to provide whatever necessary for a student's education but not the money. For one special education student in NYC, the city has been paying $400,000 a year for a full time teacher, aide, technology, and transportation. This should be a federal responsibility. But more to the point what is owed to parents? Should it only be that amount average for each student. That is, if the school district pays $10,000 per year on average for each student, that is what the district should contribute.
5) The attention paid to special education is overwhelming that other group, the gifted and talented. $8billion annually is paid in special ed while one tenth that is given towards GnT programs. Shouldnt it be the reverse. The GnT kids are our future leaders, our engineers, our innovators, our great scientists. Shouldnt they be given more opportunity to maximize their abilities? I suggest that should be the case.
Special ed needs special attention and careful review.