Panel scrutinizes special education problems, needs

WASHINGTON – A blue-ribbon presidential commission said this week that struggling special education programs for disabled students across the nation suffer from excessive paperwork and ever-growing administrative demands that stand in the way of teaching.

Testifying before a key Senate committee on Tuesday, members of the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education called on lawmakers to make major changes to the politically-charged Individuals with Disabilities Education Act before any attempt is made to increase the program’s funding.

This comes as frustrating news for school districts in Maine hoping for increased federal assistance to help meet the rising costs of special education services.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican member of the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and longtime advocate of 40 percent federal funding for special education, said she was disappointed with the commission’s findings.

“When the special education law was passed in the mid-1970s, Congress promised to pay 40 percent of the cost of educating children with special needs,” Collins said. “That promise needs to be kept.”

Washington now generally pays less than 20 percent of the cost for the federally imposed program, leaving states and local communities to make up the difference.

Earlier this year, Collins signed onto bipartisan legislation calling for Washington to provide 40 percent of all funding for special education by the year 2007 at the cost of $15 billion.

“Whenever I meet with school superintendents and principals in the state of Maine, the number one issue on their minds is the escalating costs of meeting the needs of children with special needs – the costs of special education,” Collins said in a statement at the time.

Maine has 35,140 students enrolled in special education in grades K-12, or 16 percent of all students, as opposed to 12 percent enrolled nationally, according to Collins.

The average total per pupil cost for a student receiving special education services in Maine is $10,000, she said.

Democratic U.S. Reps. John Baldacci and Tom Allen also have been fighting for greater funding and recently drafted a letter signed by more than 90 House members calling on House appropriators to meet the 40 percent level.

“The time to meet this commitment is long past, and we cannot ask states to wait another decade for full funding,” the letter states.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Douglas Gill, a member of the presidential commission, agreed that funding was an important issue, but added that an increase in federal funding with no new parameters would not ensure improvement in the success of special education.

The commission report, “A New Era: Revitalizing Special Education for Children and their Families,” views the 40 percent funding level set by Congress in 1975 to be based on a formula that is no longer observed in practice because rising costs do not reflect the “true” expense of “achieving excellence.”

The commissioners also supported more flexibility and accountability within the system and suggested funds be allocated based on state improvement plans, and improved academic and post-secondary results.

Responding to the report’s findings, Mari Beth Oakes, director of legislation for the National Parent Teacher Association, said the bottom line for more effective special education is money.

“If schools are going to provide services and going to do it well, then the federal government needs to do their job in providing the money to make that happen” she said.

A recent report by the NPTA found that the federal government is contributing only 17 percent of the funding needed for special education nationwide and that a disproportionate amount of state and local funds being poured into special education programs have put a strain on many school districts.

Maine Department of Education spokesman Yellow Breen said that if the federal government paid a full share of 40 percent on the special education programs, it would have contributed $90 million to the state’s education budget. Instead, Washington kicked in only $20 million.

Breen said that as a result, the costs of special education have consumed a greater proportion of property taxes.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities reports that children with disabilities drop out of high school at twice the rate of students without disabilities.

Proponents of the 40 percent federal mandate, including Collins, seemed unfazed by the report and pledged to continue to push for full funding of the program.

“If the federal government would meet its obligation in funding special education, that would free up money so that schools could meet their own needs – whether that’s hiring more teachers, improving their libraries, upgrading their science labs or providing special professional development,” Collins said.