I worked at the Emory Autism Resource Center for years, and I think the Walden Programs is exceptional. I have mixed emotions about the private schools because there are too many of students in special education not getting appropriate instruction. My one major concern is that these schools may become just special education schools and may not have the resources necessary to provide equal or better support/instruction than public schools. Dr. Gail McGee, told me a long time ago that separate is not equal and that has always stuck with me. She was speaking about inclusion. It is good to have options though.
Rene
Demery,
Ellenwood___________________________________________________________________
Yes, it is difficult for parents to get the education that they need for their children, even though there is an Individualized Education Plan (
IEP), as mandated by law. But there is little evidence that private schools could do a better job of educating our son, or other children with disabilities. When the
IEP is followed, public schools can and should do the best job of educating all children.
First, the estimated voucher of $6,000 - $9,000 would barely cover the expenses for private education. Private education for special needs children ranges from $12,000 to $24,000. We researched sending our son to a regular Atlanta private school. We would have had to pay $14,000 in tuition, plus another $20,000 for support staff. Middle to lower income families will not be able to send their children with disabilities to private schools. So who will the bill really benefit? Also, there will be extra administrative costs to the state just to administer the program.
Judith
Moen Stanley, Atlanta
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I have very mixed feelings about the bill, and need to read the final version carefully. For now though, here are my thoughts:
On my republican, conservative hand, I think that anything which causes competition has to improve ALL services, eventually. The public schools will have to wake up and take notice if they lose many of their students. It will supposedly force them to improve their services so they can compete for those tax dollars that follow the child. The problem is that it might take forever, like turning the Titanic.
On my democratic, socially aware hand, I am a little worried that the most engaged parents, of the kids with some of the lesser needs on their IEP’s, will be the first to pull their kids out of public school and flee to private schools. That will leave the kids with the most needs left at public school, having to split funding from what remains. It’s already getting hard to recruit special ed teachers and now they will have even less money and more requirements.
Personally, this will be good for me. I am on the board of a fledgling new school (!), The Phoenix Academy. We are going to open with 15 middle school students in the fall of 2008. We’re going to be a non-profit school, serving kids with above average intelligence but specific learning disabilities or social issues that make it impossible for them to thrive in the public school setting. This money will help our parents considerably.
On the other hand though, I have seen some pretty terrible things happen in the tutoring industry once government got their hands and dollars involved. Many flaky tutoring companies sprung up overnight to chase those government contracts, and not all of them offer good services that serve the child. I am worried about people opening very low quality schools just to chase this new money. Parents will have to very careful, and research the schools very deeply. Which is hard to do when your child and your family are in emotional upheaval because of a terrible public school placement….
Peggy Thomas,
Fayetteville___________________________________________________________________
My child could be one of the kids who might take advantage of this scholarship, but I have very mixed feelings about it.
I see this scholarship helping some children--but very few children.
Those children would be children who lived in a large enough city to support a private school that might serve their needs and have parents who could pay the difference between what the tuition was and what the scholarship covered. That eliminates most of the state outside of the metropolitan Atlanta area. It also eliminates many families in the metro Atlanta area that couldn't afford to pay the difference in tuition.
I'm concerned that children in rural areas and smaller Georgia towns may never be able to take advantage of this scholarship. I notice in the final version that students must be in a Georgia public school for a year before applying for a scholarship--not just a semester.
I know 4 families who might want to use this scholarship but can't because they've already taken their child out of the public system. I don't think they're prepared to waste a year of their child's life to take advantage of this offer.
Many of their concerns are related to their public school's
inability to use best practice methods for teaching their children or using an old paradigm about teaching their children. Instead of taking money out of the public school system, maybe more should be going in to better train teachers & staff.
These children will not be protected under some provisions of I.D.E.A.. The parents will very much be in a "buyer beware" situation.
Myself, I cannot abide that my child has in the past been put in a completely segregated situation at school and would be very reluctant to intentionally do this in a private setting. If we truly value Life we must welcome all are fellow humans, especially the one's with "special needs", into our regular community; and children's regular community is school.
It will be interesting to see how many families take advantage of the scholarship next academic year, and the kinds of "special needs"these kids will be bringing into their new schools.
Rita
Haggerty, Atlanta
