The Dark Underbelly of Your American School District part 3: Funding
There are several key issues that are leading to children with learning disabilities not getting the education they need. Today we’ll talk about funding.
The federal government mandated special education services for kids in K-12 in 1975, with the Education For All Handicapped Children Act. At the same time, legislators promised that the federal government would help states with funding special education. The promise was to provide 40% of the cost for each child. A special education student was found to cost the state about 150% of a non-special education student. Therefore, with federal help the states would only have to come up with an additional 10% to meet the additional needs of a special education student. Unfortunately, the federal government has never come close to meeting that promise of 40% of costs. Thus, states have a huge burden of new costs which neither state nor federal funding has managed to meet.
At the same time, school districts are now legally required to provide a “Free and Appropriate Public Education” to all children including those with extra needs. They do not have more money. They do have steadily increasing costs as more kids with learning disabilities are being identified.
So what’s a school district to do? Deny. Deny. Deny. Deflect. Gaslight parents. Carefully fail to notice kids with learning disabilities. Hire powerful lawyers. Make sure the administrative judges who rule on education cases have no background in learning disabilities. Better yet, make sure they are paid by the very department they are passing judgement on.
And where does this leave teachers, and educational psychologists, and speech pathologists who work for the school district? Perhaps they have the insight to recognize a student with challenges. They can name evidenced based interventions that the school could use that would allow that child to access that “FAPE” education. Yet, they are pressured not to see, not to look beyond the limited programs the school already owns. If you’ve dedicated your professional life to helping kids learn, you’re going to feel morally compromised by the conflict between professional pressure and a child’s needs.
Many of the best of these professionals are indeed heartbroken by the system’s failure. They went in with a strong belief in the power of public education and find themselves failing kids. So, they leave the public schools and take up work for the “other side.” Parents of kids with learning differences are, unfortunately, forced into conflict with the very schools and teachers from whom they had sought help. Now, whole private armies of tutors, educational psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, educational lawyers, all line up to try and fight for a child’s access to an education. They assess, and document, and research evidenced based interventions. They see a way forward for the child. Then the parents have to try to get the school district to follow through.
If they’re smart and have the money, the parents bring in an “advocate” to help negotiate with the school and district. Advocates are not licensed nor do they have a specific education requirements. However, they are parents or professionals who have learned the legal rights of students. They have learned how the system works. They can be the voice that is firm, that pushes, that doesn’t let the school off the hook. That leaves the parents free to maintain a polite relationship with the teachers who will be working with their student.
More often, parents give up on public school. They find private schools. They home school. If they can’t afford these options, they seek help from family or tell their child to focus on vocational skills.
Interestingly, 35–40% of self-made millionaires have dyslexia. 85% of kids in juvenile detention have special education needs. And 41% of all prison inmates also have learning disabilities.* If you have learning disabilities and your family can pay to get you help then you can tap the gifts that often come with learning differences. If you have learning differences and are too poor for your family to buy help then you’re headed for trouble. Quite the waste of human potential. Quite the expensive waste of human potential.
Frankly, it’s also a huge waste of taxpayer money. A little investment up front and we can head of years and years of costs in prisons, healthcare, parole, recidivism, and other social services.
Oh, and there’s addiction to talk about too. We need additional studies to refine our understanding, but 40–60% of people in addiction recovery programs also have learning disabilities. It appears that unaddressed learning disabilities can lead to depression, anxiety, and self-medication behaviors that can then lead to addiction. Again, a little intervention with so much potential for better outcomes and lower cost to society.
Next week: the problem with teacher education programs.
I’m working on a book and seeking families with stories to tell. If you’ve been through this struggle, I’d love to hear from you. Everything will, of course, be confidential.
You can reach me at: 241kcawley@gmail.com
- Reingle Gonzalez, J. M., Cannell, M. B., Jetelina, K. K., & Froehlich-Grobe, K. (2015, December 2). Disproportionate prevalence rate of prisoners with disabilities: Evidence from a nationally representative sample. Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
Kathleen Cawley is a physician assistant and author. She is a regular guest columnist for the Auburn Journal and Folsom Telegraph where she writes on parenting and childhood. Her books, Navigating the Shock of Parenthood: Warty Truths and Modern Practicalities — from a mom with twins, And Grandma Becky’s Blue Tongue, a children’s picture book, are available where books are sold.
