Keep Your Disabled Kid Out of My Kid's Classroom

Robert Rummel-Hudson has a much-loved daughter, Schuyler, who has a language disability.  He wrote about being a Special Education Nomad, which Joanne Jacobs mentions here.  One of Jacobs' commenters  wrote:

Every special ed kid costs schools more money. They are incredibly expensive. Wealthy parents get lawyers and game the system for millions, and all the rest of the kids get inadequate educations that still cost more money.

They should be removed from the system and their education funded differently. Public schools should be reserved for the “neurotypical”.

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t receive funding; it should just come from a different pool of money–health care, probably.

Robert responded with: Should My Wordless Kid Go to  School With Your  Normal Kid?

Jacob's commenter styled himself "Cal", but really was anonymous.

I saw a link Mr. Rummel-Hudson's second article at  Vicki Foreman's blog, Speak Softly. Cal's ignorance and hostility made my jaw drop. 

Every special ed kid costs schools more money.

Well, yes and no.  IDEA mandates that the federal government dispurse money to fund special education, and that the states .  School funding is an arcane and complicated subject, however, students classified as "special education" in fact are funded at a higher rate than general education students.  For a highly-readable discussion of the subject, I refer you to Lisa Snell's article, "How schools use the "learning disability" label to cover up their failures" in   in Reason Magazine,.

They are incredibly expensive.

Again, yes and no. Some points for your ignorant commenter:

1. The majority of students in special education are there because of specific learning disabilities, which can be remediated.  Figures vary by state, about 13% of schoolchildren ages 13-16 are in special education; of those, somewhere around 60% of students have specific learning disabilities, according to the Center for Secondary Education and Transition.
2. Failing to remediate learning disabilities has a very high social cost. Those who exit the education system with poor reading and math skills are more likely to committ crimes.  According to The JFA Institute's April 2004 study, The Impact of Ignoring Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities in the Criminal Justice System (downloadable from this page) , for every $1 invested in remediating dyslexia, the state can expect to save $12 in later criminal justice/corrections spending. 
3. In some states, "Special Ed" also includes services for the gifted and talented (see for example, Colorado
4. Students with ADHD are also often in the special education system, under the category of "other health impaired".  According to several studies, inmates in the correctional system have much higher incidence of undiagnosed/untreated ADHD.  To my knowledge, no studies have yet been done on the social savings of successfully treading ADHD in school-aged children, yet the evidence from the JFA study suggest that the savings will exist.
5. Children with severe disabilities are expensive to educate. However, the numbers are quite small.  According to the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities,  Given a population of 10,000 school children, about 39 will be in the "severe and profound" category.
6. While education is expensive, one may argue that warehousing--doing nothing, failing to educate, is far more expensive

and  Wealthy parents get lawyers and game the system for millions, and all the rest of the kids get inadequate educations that still cost more money.

Marcus Winters and Jay Greene addressed this popular myth in the Spring 2007 issue of Education Next, in their article Debunking a Special Education Myth

A popular riff on the idea that special education students are bleeding public school budgets blames private placements. A large number of mostly undeserving disabled students and their clever parents, critics allege, have managed to get public schools to pay for attendance at expensive private schools.

In other words, the "wealthy parents gaming the system for millions" is an urban myth. 

They [students with disabilities] should be removed from the system and their education funded differently. Public schools should be reserved for the “neurotypical.”

I'd like to ask Mr. Anonymous to expand on this notion a little bit.  Who determines what is "neurotypical"?  Is it the child with the 155 IQ and some behavioral issues?  Is it the child with normal cognitive capacities, but with mobility problems caused by cerebral palsy?  Some other designation?

That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t receive funding; it should just come from a different pool of money–health care, probably.

Good luck with reforming education funding, Mr. Anonymous.   Those of us with kids with special needs are doing all we can to get our kids educated to the extent of their abilities, today.  We can't  wait around for funding reform, while our kids languish. 

Comments

[Maddy]

I read that on this site early this morning. I couldn't believe some of the comments that people wrote. Just goes to show what an ivory tower I exist in.
Best wishes

[Special Needs Mama]

I read your comment on the original post on Pajama's. Right on for this wonderful, enlightening analysis. Great work.