Funding an IDEA

Though it is not likely the federal government will meet its promise of funding 40 percent of speecial-education costs this year, chances look better and better that it will significantly increase funding for these programs. Under the right circumstances, the added money could be of help to Maine taxpayers.

Maine school districts in 1998 spent approximately $187 million on special education, with a mere $15 million of that coming from the federal government. (State and local governments split the remaining costs.) Though federal money through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has been increasing as a percentage of the total during the last few years, the overall rising cost of special education has made it a contentious issue at town meeting.

It became a contentious federal issue earlier this month when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a quadriplegic boy in Iowa who could not attend school without a trained aide to monitor his ventilator and other medical equipment. The ruling requires public schools to pay for the aide, but, naturally, doesn’t say how they would afford it or the court’s expansive interpretation of the IDEA.

Congress is working on it. Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the House-Senate conference on an education reform bill that give states more flexibility on federal requirements, has one such proposal. Her bill would give elementary and secondary schools the option of using money to reduce class sizes on special education. That plan would make an additional $5.6 million available in Maine. Rep. John Baldacci organized fellow members of Congress to lobby President Clinton on the issue, asking that he support an effort to raise the federal share to the expected 40 percent.

But even if Washington could meet that level, sending tens on millions of dollars to Maine tomorrow, neither the state nor the local governments would save a dime. IDEA allows additional federal money to supllement but not supplant previous funding unless the state obtains a waiver. To get a waiver, a state must provide “clear and convincing evidence that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education,” according to IDEA.

Depending on what the feds think is clear and convincing, Maine may be able to provide that information easily or it may take quite a lot of effort. Certainly, if Congress intends by meeting the federal obligation to relieve state and local taxpayers of some of their burden, they should also seek an expedited waiver process to simplify the disbursement.

IDEA is a just and humane plan for providing children with an appropriate education, but it becomes a divisive tool when Congress fails to send the proper amount of money along with its mandates. This year, there is hope that the problem will be reduced, if not eliminated.