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Date Posted: 05:15:15 02/15/02 Fri
Author Host/IP: 208-168-147-25.citynet.net/208.168.147.25
ESEA, Appropriations Bills Keep Special Ed Underfunded
[Another view on the IDEA from Special Education News.]
http://www.specialednews.com/
Washington -- After the special ed community came tantalizingly
close
to getting a commitment from Congress to pay the whole bill for
federally
mandated special ed services, the final version of the Elementary and
Secondary Education reauthorization bill emerged from last fall's
behind-the-scenes wrangling with no promise of adequate special ed
funding.
With the ESEA debates finally closed, Congress followed a week later
with an
$8.67 billion special ed funding package, nearly $9 billion short of
what
the states need from the federal coffer.
Though it was dubbed the "No Child Left Behind Act," the new bill
has
some special ed supporters wondering how schools will be able to help
students with disabilities progress when state education agencies
receive
less than 15 percent of the additional money they need to educate these
children.
"Despite broad and deep bipartisan support to lift the unfunded
mandate of special education, education bill conferees rejected the
will of
the majority in Congress to fully fund special education," National
Education Association President Bob Chase said in a statement. "This
action
is simply irresponsible and misses the opportunity to truly leave no
child
behind."
However, others say disagreement about whether and how to change
various provisions in IDEA, and how to tie IDEA funding to improved
special
ed performance, were key reasons the full-funding plan failed to gain
enough
support for inclusion in the ESEA bill. "The early and accurate
identification of learning disabilities is critically important. But
because
of flaws in the current Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
too
many children are being wrongly placed in special education classes,"
argued
Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Education and
Workforce
Committee. "Over-identification is causing countless children to be
placed
in special education classes they don’t belong in, and driving up the
cost
of special education nationwide."
On a positive note, Congress increased the overall federal
special ed
allocation 17 percent from its 2001-02 appropriation. State grants for
preschool, elementary and secondary special ed programs and services
for
2002-03 went up 19 percent -- they will get $7.53 billion compared to
the
$6.34 billion they received for the current school year. Congress also
boosted funding for special ed teacher training 10 percent to $90
million
for next year.
And the ESEA bill was just the first of two prime opportunities
special ed supporters on Capitol Hill have to push a special ed funding
mandate through Congress. With the federal special ed law, the
Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, needing reauthorization by next fall,
Congressional supporters say they will use that process to reintroduce
some
version of the six-year funding ramp-up plan that was cut from the ESEA
bill. Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chuck Hagel
(R-Neb.)
and James Jeffords (Ind.-Vt.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) are
among
special ed funding's leading advocates.
Bush's new emphasis on reading yielded the states $900 million in
"Reading
First" grants, up from $286 million last year. Those funds, plus an
additional $75 million earmarked as "Early Reading First" money for
projects
in low-income areas, must be spent on U.S. Department of
Education-authorized and research-supported literacy efforts. With a
new
$12.5 million allocation, school libraries will also join in the
nationwide
reading effort, which aims to have every child reading by third grade.
Another notable change to ESEA under the new law is that students
with
disabilities will be increasingly included in national, standardized
achievement testing, as a way to increase schools' accountability for
the
progress of students in special ed. Though results of national and
state
assessments now must be reported based on more specific demographics,
including poverty, race and ethnicity, disability and English
proficiency,
the law lets states determine how to improve reading and writing
performance
among those groups.
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