WSJ: “Special Education: When should Taxes pay for Private Tuition?”
Needless to say, I’m highly invested in how this kind of issue goes. Whether Tom Freston, former Viacom exec, is a saint or not, I appreciate his stated motivation, as the article quotes it:
“In a statement, he said he contributed reimbursements he received from the city — and will donate future ones — to a special-education support center in a public school. He says he is pursuing the case so other children, “without jumping through hoops,” can attend appropriate schools “regardless of their family’s financial means.“
My snooty answer to the question - especially when asked in light of schools that already fail typically developing students, before we even begin to talk about special needs students - is whenever public schools fail to provide what they’re supposed to with the tax-payer funds they’ve been alloted, then other means should be funded. It’s why I’ve begun to swing towards a pro-choice stance on the models that vouchers and charter schools provide.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I just forwarded that very same article to our school board members up here.
It’s a tough issue. School districts can pay upwards of $30K-$40K to educate one special ed. kid at a private school. The pie doesn’t get bigger to accommodate that, so that means less money to educate the rest of the kids. Sometimes the education that non-special ed. kids isn’t great either…but those kids don’t get the option of getting funds to go private.
Our society needs to make education a bigger priority and fund it adequately.
October 1st, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Preach on brother!
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:50 am
Kathy,
I agree that increased funding would reflect a higher priority on education. Wouldn’t that be great.
But I don’t assume that the pie is going to get any bigger, nor that they problem is primarily about a lack of funds. I think a school district like La Canada has some built in accountability to provide quality services because there is probably a higher capacity for residents in your community to remove their children from the schools if quality of education were an issue.
But the situation in my neighborhood is much different, and the accountability of choice (or competition) isn’t here. I see in this school district a gross mismanagement of funds. So to add to the problem that you raise about fighting for a limited quantity of pie, the pie that is there isn’t used being applied well. Actually, in many cases it is just being wasted. And the limited options for my family and others very class determined.
To be clear, I’m not saying paying for private school is the solution. I actually wish the solution were greater accountability so that public education were the best education option. But I only think this will happen with the real accountability that comes not from threatening teachers, but from putting choice in parent’s hands, not limited choice to zip code.