From the October 30, 1996 Daily Report Card:
-> *5   EDUCATING SPECIAL CHILDREN:  THE COSTS HAVE SKYROCKETED
->    TIME Magazine reports on the Maynard family, who reside in
-> rural Union County, S.D. (Allis, 11/4).  They have received an
-> abundance of hate mail and personal threats all because one of
-> their children, who is autistic, is going to a private school at
-> taxpayer expense -- dollars that would have been targeted to the
-> county's school district.
->    School board meetings were "like walking into a Klan
-> meeting," said Cathy Maynard, the child's mother.  "People we
-> lived beside for generations will no longer talk to us.  We
-> didn't choose the role.  We did what any good parents would do."
-> According to TIME, county residents paid for an 80%
-> increase in the school budget, a quarter of which went for the
-> Maynard child's special-education needs.  Property taxes jumped 55%
-> in 1992, writes the magazine.
->    TIME:  "While the venom facing the Maynard family is rare,
-> the conflict that spawned it is not."  The magazine goes on to
-> explain that while federal and state laws mandate certain
-> educational requirements for special-needs students, funding to cover
-> the costs of the education is not forthcoming.  For
-> example, federal special-education legislation enacted in 1975
-> was supposed to cover 40% of the costs.  The reality:  the
-> federal share of national spending for special education is a
-> mere 7%, notes TIME.
->    States have special-education laws, also funded at
-> inadequate levels.  Mass., "which has one of the highest
-> percentages of special-ed. students of any state in the country
-> (11.1%)," covered only 17% of the cost of educating special-needs
-> students last year, writes the magazine.  And the number of
-> public school students in special education has increased over
-> the years:  5.4 million in special education nationwide last
-> year, up from 4.8 million five years ago.  A soon-to-be-released
-> report by the Washington-based Council for Educational
-> Development and Research reports that special-education spending
-> nationally has doubled during the past 25 years to $30B, reports the
-> magazine.
->    Some educators point to "inclusion" as a means to cut the
-> cost of educating special-needs students.  TIME notes that under
-> inclusion, special-education funds follow the child.  However,
-> others claim that inclusion is no "fiscal panacea," reports TIME.
-> Public school teachers must be trained to work with special-
-> education children and additional staff must be hired.  "Anything
-> less is dumping," said William Henderson, principal of Boston's
-> Patrick O'Hearn ELementary School, where inclusion is part of the
-> program.
->    According to the magazine, inclusion works best at the
-> elementary-school level, and rarely at the secondary level.
-> "High school inclusion has little or no relevance in the lives of the
-> severely disabled," said one high school special-education
-> director in a Boston suburb.  "The kids are often miserable
-> because they have no friends except their tutors.  I think
-> parents are beginning to realize this."
->    TIME reports on Edward Moscovitch's, author of "Special
-> Education, Good Intentions Gone Awry,"  proposal to "soften" the
-> federal and state requirements concerning special education.  "I
-> would have an ironclad provision that if a child is making
-> reasonable progress in school, he doesn't get special education,
-> regardless of the disabilities."
--- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10
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