Special education is labor-intensive. There are special education students with their own full-time aides. Thus, the total spending for special education is about 21.4% of the total cost of education in the US. The total cost to educate an average special-education student is almost twice the cost of a regular student. (Source). This is a cost that can't be ignored.
There are wide differences in how much special ed students cost to educate. I work with the learning disabled. The cost to the district for these 12 kids is 1 teacher and 1 assistant and about $400 or so in materials. Definitely higher than the average student, but not exorbitant. However, our county pays for residental services for one particular violent autistic child to the tune of $250k a year. Big difference.
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Jude,
Americans are **not** stupid.
How much per pupil is freely available in my state. It is even broken down by special vs. normal education.
It is easy to compare the government cost to educate a government **normal** child to a privately schooled **normal** child. It costs **more** than twice the cost to educate a government child.
Also, not included in the cost per child are the pension and other retirement benefits that teachers receive because the minute they retire they are classified as merely a former state employee. Also, not included in the cost per government child are the capital cost that private schools pay out of their tuition ( which is half the amount). So the *true** cost of educating a **normal** child in the government system is **far** higher than in the private system.