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Vouchers don't help
disabled students
 About
77 percent of private schools taking tax dollars to educate disabled students
don't offer special classes for disabled children.
A
Palm Beach Post examination of the 641 private schools taking McKay vouchers in
Florida found that 496 reported on a state Department of Education form that they
do not have classes "specifically designed to meet the needs of children with
exceptionalities." At
The Foundation Academy in Jacksonville, for example, about 70 of the school's
240 students use McKay vouchers, mostly for learning disabilities. But
the school's teachers are not certified in Florida to teach special education
-- they aren't Florida-certified to teach at all, although they do have college
degrees. The school
also does not require its students to take standardized tests to measure their
performance. And
it does not follow Florida's Sunshine State Standards for schools, having developed
its own curriculum instead. But it and other private schools like it that take
McKay vouchers are not breaking the law. McKay
vouchers were created in 1999 to allow children with disabilities to go to private
schools at the public's expense. These
vouchers, now used by about 12,200 students, are worth between $5,000 and $21,300,
depending on the severity of a student's disability, which can range from dyslexia
and speech impediments to physical impairments and severe autism. But
there is nothing in the law that requires private schools to offer any special
attention or therapy to the disabled students. The
teachers at the private schools do not even need a college degree -- it is enough
for them to "have special skills, knowledge or expertise." There
also is no requirement for state oversight of the curriculum or academic progress,
and private schools don't have to write specialized education plans for each disabled
student -- all requirements of public schools. Proponents
of the McKay scholarships, one of Florida's three voucher programs, say that while
many private schools do hire certified teachers and offer specialized therapy,
it's not important that they have these things. They
say that sometimes all a student needs is a smaller classroom. "Small class sizes
are very important. They are critically important," said Nadia Hionides, principal
of The Foundation Academy, where the maximum class size is 15 students in kindergarten
through eighth grade and 20 students in high school. Smaller
class sizes in public schools are what voters ordered in November last year when
they approved a constitutional amendment requiring the state to reduce the number
of students in classrooms. But
Gov. Jeb Bush and the state Board of Education are asking that the amendment be
repealed because they say it is too expensive. Hionides
cautioned, however, that small classes alone will not lead to better education.
"Ultimately, the
only positive change that will happen in education is when people stop going to
public schools. That's
why I'm a real proponent of these scholarships," said Hionides, who also called
the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test "ridiculous." Different
rules The FCAT, along with vouchers, is part of Bush's A-Plus education plan,
which grades public schools on an A through F scale based on each school's aggregate
student score on the test. But
the test is not required of private school students taking McKay or corporate
tax-credit vouchers. Hionides
said she is proud of her school's structure and that parents like the results.
Critics of the McKay
voucher program argue that the loose rules governing hiring and curriculum create
a "revolving door" of parents who leave the public system thinking a private school
will be better but not realizing that they are giving up federal rights afforded
them in public schools. The
federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act requires public schools to
abide by a strict set of rules and standards, and a parent has recourse if a school
does not follow the law. If
a public school fails to hire teachers certified in special education or write
specialized education plans for each student, the school district faces fines
from the state and loss of federal dollars. But
private schools are not bound by the act or by the terms of a child's education
plan. If parents
are unhappy with what one private school is offering, they can choose another
school -- private or public. "I
get calls all the time from parents who say their child's speech or writing isn't
improving in the private school, and that's because the school doesn't have a
strategist working individually with their child," said Debbie Tanguay, a special
education resource teacher in the Palm Beach County School District who works
with parents taking McKay vouchers. "The
parents are always surprised." Tanguay
is the lone public school representative on a state task force studying the McKay
voucher program and considering recommendations for changes. Stinging
report The task
force -- which is headed by former state Senate President John McKay, the man
who created the voucher program -- is scheduled to meet Tuesday in Tallahassee
to discuss a stinging Senate Education Committee report that faulted the state's
Department of Education and Board of Education for allowing "unstable" schools
to take McKay vouchers and for failing to enact rules that would allow for more
oversight. One of
the recommendations the group will consider would require private schools taking
vouchers to tell parents what types of disabilities their staff is trained to
work with and to provide that information to the state. Another
suggestion would require McKay voucher students to take some form of annual assessment
to measure their academic success in private schools. But
McKay says: "A certificate on the wall does not signify nirvana. I'm not sure
having a special education certification means that a person can take care of
these children." And
Tanguay is pessimistic that the task force will adopt substantive accountability
measures because, she said, the committee is heavy with voucher proponents. Both
sides of the issue have not been equally presented, she said. "The
parents who feel the private schools are working for them are the ones going to
Tallahassee saying how great vouchers are," Tanguay said. "The
parents who don't like it are just happy the public schools will take them back.
They don't want to rock the boat." Sen.
Lee Constantine, chairman of the Senate Education Committee and member of the
task force, is more optimistic that the legislature will make schools taking vouchers
more accountable. "The
guiding principal for this program is that education is directed by the parent,"
said Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs. "But
there absolutely needs to be a balance to guarantee that teachers and schools
have the qualifications to do what they need to do." By
Kimberly Miller
Dec
9th 2003 Original
article
With
many thanks to the highly recommended Palm
Beach Post.
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