Special Education’s Dirty Little Secret
Special education doesn’t really work. Well…it works where there are significant financial resources attached to it, usually in wealthier school districts. Elsewhere…there’s much to be desired. Severe understaffing, archaic policies, and a general disregard for students with disabilities have caused an already fractured system to be on the verge of catastrophe. The rob Peter to pay Paul tactics being employed to keep special education programs afloat are running out of steam. The bag of tricks has become quite sparse. Why? Because special education was never really going to work effectively. President Gerald Ford, who signed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, stated:
Unfortunately, this bill promises more than the Federal Government can deliver, and its good intentions could be thwarted by the many unwise provisions it contains. Everyone can agree with the objective stated in the title of this bill -- educating all handicapped children in our Nation. The key question is whether the bill will really accomplish that objective.
Even the strongest supporters of this measure know as well as I that they are falsely raising the expectations of the groups affected by claiming authorization levels which are excessive and unrealistic.
Despite my strong support for full educational opportunities for our handicapped children, the funding levels proposed in this bill will simply not be possible if Federal expenditures are to be brought under control and a balanced budget achieved over the next few years.
Let that sink in. In light of the challenging experiences being reported by teachers and families, we only have to look to Ford’s prophetic words from 1975: unwise, excessive, unrealistic, despite, not possible.
So, we are here 46 years later operating patchwork programs for children who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. When we are facing a teaching And learning crisis of a tsunami magnitude in the public schools across the country, those of us with close ties to special education understand this only means that special education will continue to manifest the dismal outcomes that President Ford predicted in 1975.
