Feds continue to drive up cost of education

[Annie]

Did they also make text books available to the blind students?

They can have braille or audiobooks, there choice.

This was not about the schools not supplying stuff to blind students, it was about them not supplying Kindles to sighted ones.

And Kindle has the ability to read aloud text, someone sighted would have to turn it on. Not that difficult.

 

[WillowTree]

if it's what its purported to be, it sure is.

the question is can we trust a writer who called people opposed to arizona's law 'the chattering class'?

paranoia runs deep huh?

paranoia? no. we already know what liars the rightwingnuts are.

no, what we know is you are a partisan hack job.

 

[Samson]

However, the schools and the people paying property taxes have picked up a burden that really is NOT sustainable. Medically fragile children and children that are not educable due to brain damage. To top it off, the NCLB Act also punishes schools that serve these children.

.... I don't have the answers, but I am guessing that when the school's responsibility time runs out, these children then fall under social security. Why is it until 18 they are the local municipalities responsibility?

Corrrection: They are local municipalities responsibility until they're 21.

You might enjoy reading the entire National Council on Disability's Report. It's a little dated, but interestingly the circular nature of the discussion seems to make it fresh from
July 5, 2002.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Reauthorization: Where Do We Really Stand?

If full funding is to be accomplished, Congress must decide if [the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975)] is to be mandatory or subject to the annual appropriation process. Two comments weigh in against mandatory funding. This position is countered by the amendment sponsored by Senators Harkin and Hagel last year in the No Child Left Behind legislation establishing mandatory full funding.

Chairman John Boehner, House Committee on Education and the Workforce Fact Sheet, Fact Sheet, "IDEA Must Be Fully Funded, But First It Must Be Fixed," April 6, 2000:

"Making IDEA a mandatory spending program will make it very difficult to enact much needed reforms to its current structure. Once the program is mandatory, any changes to the program must be scored. If these changes cost money, then an offset must be found to pay for the changes. Offsets are typically difficult to find. . . . If . . .costs are much higher than twice the costs of education for non-disabled students . . . the Federal Government is locked into funding the program at 40 percent of the national average per pupil expenditure, . . . revising it is extremely difficult [and] . . . could prevent IDEA from receiving substantial funding increases."

Lisa Graham Keegan, Education Leaders Council; William J. Bennett, Empower America; Chester E. Finn, Jr., Thomas B. Fordham Foundation:

"Nor do we believe making the federal contribution an entitlement would make the program itself any more accountable or effective. . . .We need to be able to monitor its effectiveness through the appropriations process (among other accountability mechanisms), rather than allowing it to automatically continue to sop up funds."

Question 1. What, if any, changes should be considered in federal special education funding formulas?

I realize that school systems don't have enough money. However, I can't imagine how much money is wasted on districts trying to somehow defend their failure to comply with the law rather than just providing the service. A Parent Named Ann, May 14, 2002

Summary: Integrated funding, that is, the utilization of IDEA funds in general education classrooms, has been an issue for years, with advocates for student rights strongly opposing earmarking any IDEA money for use outside of special education. It was clear that administrators strongly favor such changes in IDEA from the strength of their recommendation, but this position was not reinforced by parents and other advocates. A myriad of other recommendations also surfaced--weighted or differential payments based on severity of the disability; elimination of funding supporting segregation; examination of costs versus expenditures as the funding formula base; creation of federal safety nets for cost overruns; addition of more administrative allowances; coordination of funding with other federal programs with IDEA responsibilities; reduction of state maintenance of effort requirements; creation of a state match; creation of a cap on Part B expenditures and attorneys fees; and elimination of disability categories.