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Jan 16, 2007 11:00 pm US/Eastern
Is There A Balanced Solution To Special Education?
by Lisa Hughes
BOSTON (CBS4) ―
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As in schools across the state, many of the resources used today will go to teach Special Education students.
CBS
Paying for schools is often the biggest part of a community's budget, and takes the biggest bite out of our wallets. Many cities and town are struggling to pay the growing cost of Special Education, and that struggle can affect regular education students. In this Project Mass. special report, is there a balanced solution?
It's a busy day at the Mulready Elementary School in Hudson as buses arrive and parents drop of their children for another school day. As in schools across the state, many of the resources used today will go to teach Special Education students, sometimes in separate settings with one teacher to one student, or in groups as part of a regular classroom. "What we experience is burgeoning costs," says Hudson School Superintendent Sheldon Berman.
Berman has been on the job in Hudson for 14 years. "We have a growing population of students who need more significant services," he says. Here's an example. When Berman became Superintendent he had 2 students on the autism spectrum, today there are 26.
The story is the same at districts statewide. Special Education services are varied, from as little as an hour, a few times a week, to expensive out of district placements for children with the greatest needs. "It isn't atypical to have students whose services cost in the range of $250,000 a year," says Superintendent Berman. And educators are legally bound to provide special ed. services by federal and state mandates. Some call them unfunded mandates because the government picks up only a portion of the tab. According to Berman, "At the federal level it has never been funded. The commitment originally was to provide 40% of funding for special education. For Massachusetts it's approximately 6%.
So schools are often forced to cut the "regular" education budget to pay mandated special ed. costs, which can eventually create a crisis. "You can increase class size, you can reduce the number of teachers, you can look at maintenance and administration," says Berman.
The state has stepped up in recent years with something called "the circuit breaker" which pays a portion of the more expensive costs. But is it enough? "I think the state has got to take a greater role," says newly elected Gov. Deval Patrick. "I think one of the things we have to do is update the circuit breaker. The state hasn't funded that circuit breaker at a hundred percent for some while now. So that's one thing we've got to fix," according to Gov. Patrick.
We'll see if the state can find the money to do that. Let's be very clear on one point. No one is suggesting that children don't need or deserve special education services. The dilemma is how to have enough money to take care of everyone's needs.
What about the federal government? CBS 4 News asked the U.S. Department of Education why the feds don't contribute more. A representative told us that funding is growing dramatically, but superintendents across the state say it still isn't keeping pace.
Our thanks to the students, parents and teachers at the Mulready School for helping us tell this story.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
