NH school districts to feds: Pay up

YOUR COMMENTS

For those addressing the cost of special education, perhaps you should address the long term cost of not providing special education. Many individuals who have special needs would never be able to hold down jobs, if it weren't for their "special services" received during their schooling years. In the long term, we as tax payers would be paying their lifetime of Social Security benefits and Health Care Coverage. And they in turn would be sitting home doing nothing. Does the short term cost of their education out weigh the long term cost of life-long dependence on government programs to pay for their housing, food, health care, etc. And yes, that would include paying for their children's housing, food, health care, etc. until they turn 18...because their parents wouldn't be able to provide for them.

In my estimation paying the expense to provide extra services until the age of 18 costs our tax payers a lot less then it would to provide them life-long benefits.
- Hope, Toledo, Ohio

I can not get over the amount of ignorant adults in this world!!! Children with challenges of any kind work harder than any of us. Just eating, walking, talking,seeing, hearing, or breathing ect.. Some of us were blessed being born with out challenges.. When you get into your car or cross the street walking any one of us can have an accident and have challenges for the rest of our lives. And I hope no one says to you "We don't want to waist our money on you to learn how to sit,stand, walk,talk, eat." How would that feel? It is quite obvious here who was blessed with healthy children in there lives. There is a very good reason why you were not chosen to raise a child with challenges. And I was chosen. Thank you God!!!
- Lee, Manchester

I am embarrassed and ashamed of the postings of so called adults on this article.

First of all, suggesting that students with disabilities, as a whole, can never learn, can never contribute to society, is grossly erroneous, callous and smacks of ignorance.
85% of adults with an IQ in the mild mentally retarded range (55-70)go on to live independent lives, hold down a job, and support themselves.
The vast majority of those with specific learning disabilities do the same.
At what point, at what age, and on whose word would it be to decide that a particular student should not be educated? a 3rd grader who can't read?
A 1st grader with a 69 IQ? A 16 year old who can not pass Algebra?
EVERY child deserves a special education, tailored to their individual needs, learning strengths and style.
If there is blame to be places it should be on the TEACHERS who do not stay up to date on research based practices, who have no interest in reaching the needs of their students and who walk out of that building as the dismissal bell rings with empty hands.
"THESE" children are a PART of our society and it is a greater drain on our society to shut them OUT of educational opportunities and support them for the rest of their lives then it is to educate them to the best of their ability to become a contributing member of society.
So, some may only mop floors in a fast food joint or pack nuts and bolts into plastic bags in a sheltered workshop, others go on to college, technical training, or directly into careers not requiring either of those degrees.
My father, now 66, had learning disabilities and partial hearing impairment and was told he would never graduate High School. He earned his MBA at the age of 23 and is a CPA, retired from being the Treasurer of a publically held company, with a thriving private practice.
At what point do we decide who we educate and who we don't?
- Daniella, NY

We are waste deep in education reform and reform of school funding here in Ohio. Do a Google search and you will find interesting educational reform reading. Now, paying for it all will be an interesting challenge....
- Kathleen, Wickliffe, Ohio

We desperately need to reform public education, it is very broken, blaming children with disabilities is not any kind of a solution.
- Linda, Weare, NH

Don't worry Pembroke as soon as the Obama admin prints up another trillion dollars your money will be on its way. Then with the infaltuion caused by the printing of the money it will then have half the value you thought you were getting.

I hope they are teaching economics in the schools still because these kids are screwed and I doubt they will even know what hit them or why. My guess will be Bush did it.
- Deb, Derry

To Bill Tuftonboro, Sorry Bill but with that reasoning why should the government pay for your kid or anybodys kid for that matter. What makes children with the special ed code so much less than your kid. You are implying they are not a part of society. What makes you a part of society and not them? Why should society pay for you and not them? Show me the playbook please on societies rules about this. Should we bring them up on top of a high mountain and leave them there to fend for themselves like they do in China? If I have to pay for your kid, my kid, their kid, its all the same to me. There all kids.
- Joanne, Manchester

NC of manch- who are you to judge what opinion someone can post here?
I have talked to MANY parents of Special needs students and they agree that a classroom JUST for them would be most beneficial to everyone.
They wouldn't be distracted by the mainstreaming of the "normal" kids and could actually learn more because they are not always left to feel like they are always trying to catch up/ keep up.
This is not to say that they couldn't participate in recess or sports where they have interaction with other kids.
In this case, going backwards IS a good thing for these kids.
If a kid can only learn to a certain grade level, you can mainstream them all you want and they will not learn anything more than what they have already learned.
It is closed minds like yours that just want to throw more money at it and expect that to work.
The system needs to be revamped. While the SPED kids do need attention, we need to realize that they have limits and not keep throwing money at them. We DO need to seriously address the kids who are very intelligent and help them to get further. This is what we pay for, to make our kids as smart as they can be.
- Pauline, Franklin

Heather. TDK here's a little hint: Education is the responsibility of parents, not countless neighbors struggling to keep a roof over their heads. Homeowners are not a bottomless pit of education dollars to be tapped every time some parasite in the NEA buys off a new law demanding an expansion of "special ed" services.

Have you never wondered why inflation-adjusted education spending has more than tripled in the past 40 years yet we're losing ground to the rest of the world?

Taxpayers wanting to control the insane and cloaked-in-secrecy spending on this proven-ineffective program are not the heartless monsters you'd like to pretend they are.
- Jim Peschke, Croydon, NH

Both my children were in the gifted and talented program until funds and room went away in favor of a discipline room. It is a shame that schools have to put more money and effort into problem children, but no education into children that can benifit from it.
A few years after my kid spent more time in the guidance counselors office than in class. She went from one of the smartest kids in class to a kid who was disruptive. She got bored really fast because there was no challenge and no one was interested in teaching kids that are capable of learning above grade level.She no longer goes to school.
School is for special needs kids not for the gifted.
- k, hillsboro

How about having the parents of these special ed students pay for the extra cost of educating their child? Society did not bring them into the world, why should society pay for it?

Last I heard we were still a Republic, not a Socialist or Communist nation.
- Bill, Tuftonboro

Barb of Concord,

Unless you have some sort of special pull with the federal government, special education will continue as mandated at the local level without enough funding, which is the point of the article. But then, maybe that's a good thing. Then the "gifted and talented" in our schools can learn some compassion for the "less gifted", which seems to be sorely lacking in your home.
- Robin, Bow

Barb is indelicate about it, but she's basically right. Special ed spending is out of control, and is threatening to eat school systems out of house and home. Equal access is a good idea, but at some point, you hit the law of diminishing returns. Not everybody can be a brain surgeon.
- Shackelford, Plaistow

I wonder if Barb would also want us to leave our elderly, sick and poor out to rot too so only those who are young and have had the advantage of a good education and healthcare can prosper.
- TDK, Bedford

This is really sad. Some of these comments actually suggest NOT educating these children at all. What is to become of them? They deserve at least a chance to succeed. I'm sure no-one here would have wanted these children aborted.
- Heather, Londonderry

Barb from Concord is right; Special Ed is a scam. Only government would expend the greatest resources where they do the least good.

This is a just a way of hiding the ridiculous expenditures in public ed. As inappropriate (and unconstitutional) as it is for Washington to mandate these programs, you can't expect them to fund 40% of an arbitrarily high number.

One way to make sure that the feds provide 40% funding is to cap spending at 2.5X what the fed sends you. That won't happen, because Big Ed's solution to EVERYTHING is more spending.

Ever notice that the "solution" to unfunded mandates is to increase funding (taxes)? We never hear educrats say "Get rid of the mandate". Teachers unions push for expensive mandates, then cry foul when they want more money. Sadly, some people are naive enough to do their whining for them.

Do away with Special Ed. It wastes money and has produced no benefit.
- Jim Peschke, Croydon, NH

Wow barb - such a public display of abhorrent beliefs. Who else do you hate?

These special needs kids are our kids and deserve whatever help we can give them to be productive members of society at what ever level they can contribute.
- Frank, Dover nh

While I find Barb's wording regrettable, she has a point. From a strictly economic standpoint, the utility (what society gains) of dollars spent on special ed. is far lower than that on the rest of the student body. The real problem, though, is that of the time of the educators being focused on the fewest, at the expense of the many. Case in point, my daughter entered school this year 2.5 years ahead of her grade level in reading. She is in a reading group that consists of 4 other kids, out of the whole class of 20. This group just reads on their own. No teacher. At all.
At the end of the year, she is now only 2 grade levels ahead. Meanwhile, the three special ed students in her class get full time attention from the teaching aide, and the remaining 14 kids split the time of the teacher. So how is it "right" for one kid to lose out to another, becuase the other has "disadvantages"? My daughter did not cause those "disadvantages".

I absolutely agree there is value to society in taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. We should as society and individuals have compassion.

The problem, though, is the expectation of "normal" treatment as being most respectful, the desire or expectation of equal outcomes, and the concept that education=money=care=compassion.
That equation always partly correct, but never fully correct.

Also, Jack Alex, since this is an education topic, I gotta say something! Just to cherry pick the easiest correction:
The quote is " Alas poor Yorick! I new him, Horatio:...."
- lumpa, Manchester

I think Barb's point is being somewhat mis-interpreted; she doesn't think the special needs children should be educated at all.

Now that truly is a shameful comment.
- Charles, Hooksett

First, let's hope that the folks at SAU 53 are more conversant with the language of IDEA than they appear to be. The federal law discusses paying the 40% of the difference between special education costs and regular day costs - not 40% of the special education costs. So, if they have sent a bill for the latter amount - then they are seriously ill-informed of the law or simply incompetent.

Second, the U.S. Department of Education does not appropriate any funds for this program. It would be happy to distribute all of the funds that districts think they deserve. Does someone think that Education is holding back money from states and districts? You want to blame someone - look to your Congressional officials.
- Michael, Boston, MA

unfortunately, it seems that most of the posters here have not followed the last 12 years of education laws passed from our federal government. Google search 'No Child Left Behind Act' its a nifty law that Requires states to spend money on those 'troubled' children as well as place them in the mainstream classroom so 'that they may better learn from those that can'. manch prides itself for saying that it does not track students.. weeding the 'good' from the 'bad', Pauline.. so your idea would not fly in this state as well because those parents insist that it is the teacher's fault that thier children are not getting an education. thus leading to expensive lawsuits, etc. People should seroiusly think before posting on a public forum at the risk of themselves giving an example of the wrong side of the issue.
- NC, Manch

I work at a public school. Schools supposedly get more federal MONEY for more special Ed students and for students on reduced / free lunch programs (erate). It is beneficial for schools financially to have more special ed students. Our special ed department is one of the biggest in the school. I personally know students that have been basically told they were disabled (mentally) and placed in these programs. They are not special ed, but our schools don't care, it is all about the $$$.
- Kevin, Portsmouth

"It's shameful that we waste so much money on special needs children at the expense of the gifted and talented who could really benefit." The words of someone who has never encountered a special needs child or their parents. Your lack of empathy, understanding and basic human decency is striking.
- Roy, Pembroke

How about sending them a bill for another undunded mandate, the rediculous 'No Child Left Behind' fiasco created by Dubya?
- Bill, Tuftonboro

As a one time chairperson of one of the school boards in SAU 53, I can report that the most I ever got in remuneration was another zero on the paycheck.
- JD, Manchester

As someone who has seen both sides of the story, and who has been directly involved in the school system and who understands the budget process and the government guidelines and programs, Barb, you really don't get it and your comment is shameful. You need to spend time in a class with some special needs children to get a clue. And I am not a teacher nor do I work in education, but I have been very involved in the system.

And what you don't know is that most school districts fight hard to keep special needs cost down. School districts work to develop programs internally to take care of these children without having to send them elsewhere for programs or bringing in specialists that cost more, but the government and the program guidlines created by the government allow that to happen.

If you don't like the way it is, get involved and try to make a difference.
- Dave K, Sandown

Special needs programs are expensive to say the least. If the feds were to fund thisw expense for every school in the country it woulod cost all of us in the form of increased taxes. Money from the feds is not free - it comes from you, me and the people next door. We pay for special ed regardless. Having said that, I believe the special ed requirements go overboard and necessitate outrageous expenditures which adversely affects the quality of education provided to non-special ed students.
- Brian, Farmington

Nice bit of political grandstanding. Don't they have anything better to do with the time that they get paid for? What a waste.
- Bob V, Manchester

IT"S ABOUT TIME!
Maybe now the government will stop making these idiotic mandates without a way to fund it. Let's hope ALL the school districts do it.
As for Barb's comment- I am taking it a different way- There are "kids" who will never be able to learn past l(let's say) a second grade education, yet they spend 13 years in school with special aides and even summer school at the cost of the taxpayers. Just as I don't want kids in school who don't want to be there (and be disruptive to those who WANT to be there), I can't see the point of spending thousands on someone who will never truly be educated to a 12th grade education.
The education system has "dumbed down" kids to keep scores up, but in the meantime have sacrificed the education of those who could go much further but can't due to regulations.
In my day, special needs kids had their own classroom so they weren't disruptive, and once they had reached their level of education and were not learning anymore, they were sent home to stay. They all were tested yearly to see when that would happen. Consequently, the tab for this was very low and allowed the TAG kids to really fly because there were no leariing "restraints".
Out of my class alone, (400+) there are 213 that make over $200,000.00 a year! Compare that to classes of the last 10 years and see the difference. You may get 1 or 2.
- Pauline, Franklin

Glad to see these districts trying to get what the feds said they would pay. Feds made the ruling and the promise to pay, schools did their part and the feds don't pay.

If everyone elects BARB to the school board we can all save money. Any child with an IQ one point below BARB's gifted child would be out on the lawn. Hope you only have 1 child BARB because one child is going to be lower on the scale than the other. And you must be lower than others too.
- Jim, Loudon

Wow Barb, your comment is unreal. I'm sure you have a "gifted" child whose talents aren't being "explored" because of all the money being "wasted" on special needs children. Your comment is shameful.
- Christine, Pittsfield

Yes Barb, fact is 1 or 2 kids in a classroom that are special needs/Ed require most of the teachers attention. So for the few we give the most. Actually Jack, you need to spend a little time on the towns Budget Committe for a real education in Funding for Speical Ed. Fact is the feds have not lived up to their end of the bargain and instead they put their mandate onto us the taxpayer at the local level. As I recall, Special Ed is about 25% to 30% of the schools budget. So the Lions share of Education dollars go to very few. Some of these kids Do Not belong w/the mainstream kids but parents threaten to sue and schools do not want to waste their money w/Lawyer fees. So thats were they are put acting up and disrupting classrooms. I say all 50 states need to sue the Feds enough of the PC crap.
- Michael KIng, Epping

I say “bravo” to SAU 53 for sending this bill to the US DOE. Will anything come if it directly? Probably not , but it may cause everyone to look at how the special education funding system works. The reality is that the US DOE mandates very expensive services for students who receive special education services. The federal government has not paid its fair share (i.e., what it promised it would) for decades, and these required costs are borne in large part by the local school systems. This is all done at the expense of taking money from other services and raising local taxes. This issue has been ignored for too long. The special education funding system is a broken machine that desperately needs to be fixed. I think SAU 53 is at least taking a step in the right direction.
- Jonathan, Manchester

Yet another attempt to shakedown Uncle Sap.

They could saved the money they spent to print on paper and stuff in a envelope and put a stamp on it, such a waste all around of materials and labor.

The answer they will get is .........none, if they do get an answer it will be NO.

Some federal educrat will be laughing silly when they open the bill.

This has been done before, in fact districts have tried lawsuits even debt collectors but to no avail. Alas poor Yourek, I knew ye well.

See, Uncle Sap loves to hand done unfunded and underfunded mandates that they once promised x%, and after
all they money is washed through the sisteen and all the career hacks get their grubby hands on it, it ends up as z%.

I learned one thing, well actually two things in life, the first is, you seldom get what was promised and the second is, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Bye bye nice people, bye bye.
- Jack Alex, Manchester

It's shameful that we waste so much money on special needs children at the expense of the gifted and talented who could really benefit.
- Barb, Concord