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In Wisconsin, children who qualify for special education and their families are caught in the middle of a legislative battle over an introduced bill called AB110. The bill is similar to many private school voucher programs for special education students that are being endorsed predominantly by Republicans in state legislatures throughout the country.
One of the most misleading bills introduced by Wisconsin legislators, AB110 mandates that the option of a voucher be given to special education students for the purpose of using it for tuition at a private school or for the value of their special education services, whichever dollar amount is less. Once the family of a special education student accepts a voucher, however, they waive any rights the student has to receive a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA.
This means that Wisconsin bill AB110, by requiring public schools to cover the expensive tuition of private schools, ends up funding privately-run schools that tend to offer inferior instruction to special needs students that is neither free nor appropriate. As already stated, the the right to FAPE will be forfeited when the family accepts the voucher.
Further, if the voucher scholarship isn't enough to cover the cost of a private school, or the public school is no longer obligated to cover the costs because the family opted out of a FAPE by accepting the voucher, the family has to cover the remainder of the cost or the cost altogether.
Essentially, what all of this does is suck money out of public schools (taxpayers) and parents, and fills the pockets of private school operators, most of whom, ironically, operate schools that don't offer provisions for special needs students and basically discourage the participation of special needs students as a result of a lack of services.
What bills like AB110 end up doing is segregating disabled children from their peers, setting back laws that have supported mainstreaming in regular classrooms for decades. Since it has been implemented, mainstreaming has repeatedly been proven to benefit both disabled and non-disabled kids alike.
Another frightening aspect of bills like AB110, is the aspect of them that cover the audit of these special education voucher programs. AB110 states that the legislative audit bureau shall contract with one or more researchers who have experience evaluating school choice programs.
What this means is that outside contractors who have experience evaluating vouchers will be used to evaluate the program. It doesn't mean that experts in special education will be called upon to evaluate the actual efficacy of the private school program as it pertains to meeting the needs of disabled children.
In other areas of the country, specifically Florida, where special education scholarship vouchers have been implemented, outright disaster has ensued for participants. Riddled with fraud and abuse, these programs end up doing harm to the most vulnerable children. For more information about how these Florida programs have failed, check out Miaminewtimes.com to read their article about McKay Scholarship Programs. Based on what little these voucher programs have to offer special needs children, a majority of disability organizations in Wisconsin have opposed them.
Even when faced with mounting evidence that these programs are not only expensive, but that they also fail to address the needs of disabled students, legislators continue to endorse and pass bills that support them. Unfortunately, in doing so, they end up sacrificing the rights of the most vulnerable citizens in the process.
Where motherhood, tenacity and advocacy meet. Alphamomfia.com is a blog written by Julie Harris, who left a successful career in sales to advocate on behalf of one of her sons, who battles with anxiety. She muses about life, children and gardening and also provides a resource for parents wanting to advocate on behalf of their own children. Funny, insightful and irreverent, Alphamomfia is worth checking out! Alphamomfia represents a whole new breed of Alpha Mom.
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