Dr. Tiegerman Speaks

There is very little that is complimentary about special education and/or nonpublic schools in the media. The complaints state “there are too many children in special education.”  As if to say that these children do not belong in special education and their parents placed them because they want additional services. Or, “there are too many children in nonpublic schools.” Meaning that there are public school options but parents effectively get more than what they are entitled to from the system.  The public is presented with a very negative representation of special education schools and parents of children with disabilities. If the very agency monitoring these programs is complaining, it must be true….a bloated system with manipulative parents. Where does the public see how NYS students are provided with extraordinary services by committed professionals in special education schools – public and nonpublic schools?  The special education system in New York now serves about 450,000 children with disabilities. It is one of the largest and most diverse systems in the country. Why then is there such a disconnect between the two parallel systems – public vs. nonpublic and general vs. special education?  The answer is money. Special education represents almost 20% of the states entire education budget. It becomes difficult to continue raising taxes to fund educational programs. This is clearly not a popular approach. It becomes much easier to go after the few and cast aspersions to develop a negative image creating a common enemy that everyone can blame for the failures in public schools.  This also creates a diversion to shift the focus from the real problem which is public school failures with nondisabled children.  Over time, there has been an ongoing campaign against special education. Not that there are not problems in special education. But the public school graduation rate of 68% in New York for the 2004-2005 school year is neither the fault of special education schools nor students with disabilities.  A study published in Education Week lists New York as number thirty-five in the nation, seven points ahead of Mississippi and Alabama.  How many times have I heard, “nonpublic schools are too expensive, they cost as much as a college education?” Maybe children need these therapeutic services? Perhaps you think that school districts and parents want to classify students as disabled?  The real tendency is for parents to fight and struggle against the disability label sometimes to the detriment of the child. So where are we? The field consists of the good programs and the bad programs. One picture portrays the public schools with nondisabled students and their parents. The other picture presented shows that the bad programs are the private schools with the disabled students and their parents. There is a two-tier system in New York State. Parents, students and teachers are treated very differently depending on which system they live in. It is not fair and it is cruel to make special education the demon and continue to blame parents, students and teachers who struggle every day to deal with the harsh realities of children with developmental disabilities.