Replies

The District spends so much per pupil largely because of the special education population. The administration has lost so many lawsuits for not following basic IEP's that about 10% go to private schools, paid for by the District. In addition, the population has a large amount of special needs children, some requiring residential care. Residential care can go upwards of 250k per year, per child.

A better comparison would be one that compared dollars spent on regular education. Rural states do not have the incredible numbers of high needs children that can skew these types of reports.

The District spends so much per pupil largely because of the special education population. The administration has lost so many lawsuits for not following basic IEP's that about 10% go to private schools, paid for by the District. In addition, the population has a large amount of special needs children, some requiring residential care. Residential care can go upwards of 250k per year, per child. A better comparison would be one that compared dollars spent on regular education. Rural states do not have the incredible numbers of high needs children that can skew these types of reports.

I disagree with the notion that Special Education spending has caused these results to be skewed. The data that I provided above is just a sample of data that I have collected which proves that funding and achievement are not linked. Notice also that I only listed the top/bottom 10 states in this article. The other states (even the rural ones) show the same thing. The percentage of students in the District of Columbia that are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is 15.3% which ranks 9th in the Nation. States such as New Mexico (18th on SAT scores and 29th on spending) have higher percentages of special education students.

I have worked in special ed for many years and I totally agree with you.

The destructive impact special ed is having on public education is immense and growing.

It is such a political hot potato and "feel good" issue that no politician dares touch it.

Moreover, due to the layers and layers of regulations, documentation, due process rights etc., few legislators or members of the general public have any real grasp of the depth and scope of the problem and the tremendous waste that it entails.