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CNN Live At Daybreak
Special Education in Debate
Aired July 09, 2001 - 08:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: You know this from the White House to your house, improvement in public education is a topic that's being debated across the country right now.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's right money and testing are usually at the center of the debate, but in one Connecticut school district, the rift goes beyond that.
CNN's Kathy Slobogin explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Close your eyes.
KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sam (ph) is a child with multiple disabilities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bunny. A rabbit.
SLOBOGIN: Because of the federal law passed 25 years ago, Sam (ph) is also a kindergartner in a public school.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Santa.
SLOBOGIN: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, guarantees disabled children a public education. It now serves more than six million American children. But while IDEA has made moments like this one possible, it has also grown beyond all expectations, swallowing school budgets and dividing communities.
Roger Lulow, the superintendent in Greenwich, Connecticut, where Sam (ph) goes to school, says special ed costs nearly bankrupted the system there, forcing Greenwich -- the wealthiest district in the state -- to borrow money from the town three years in a row.
ROGER LULOW, SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: And the number of kids in special ed, well we were up almost to 20 percent of our student body, being identified as handicapped.
SLOBOGIN: Parents of disabled and nondisabled children were at each other's throats, according to Candace Timpson, who headed the PTA's special education committee.
CANDACE TIMPSON, PARENT: There was almost physical violence. So there was a general PTA meeting going on, and several parents turned. They knew who I was, and they said you're the reason we don't have soccer equipment for the kids.
SLOBOGIN: In many school districts, special ed eats up a quarter to a third of the school budget, while serving about 12 percent of the students.
(on camera): Special education programs have opened the school house door for millions of children who might once have been shut out, but their costs have had a profound effect on regular education, even getting in the way of reform. One estimate, by the Economic Policy Institute, found that special ed soaks up 38 cents of every new dollar raised for the public schools.
(voice-over): As Congress debates whether the federal government should pick up more of the cost, a growing number of educators are challenging the program itself.
CHESTER FINN, FORDHAM FOUNDATION: Special ed is cracked, if not broken, and after 25 years, needs to be rethought.
SLOBOGIN: Chester Finn, an editor of a new report on IDEA, says the current system is so troubled that more funding might actually mask its problems.
FINN: If you put an ice pack on a pain so that you no longer feel that sprained ankle, you don't deal with the fact that you actually have a sprained ankle that needs treatment.
SLOBOGIN: Beyond runaway costs, Finn says there's little evidence special education is actually effective.
FINN: We do know that the graduation rate for special ed kids is very low. We do know that getting out of special ed is very rare. It's sort of a one-way street.
SLOBOGIN: Granted superintendent Lulow agrees the argument over money may be the wrong argument.
LULOW: Money in and of itself won't solve the problem. It's how you're going to use that money that's going to make the difference.
SLOBOGIN: Three years ago, Lulow and the school board decided to change business as usual in Greenwich.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ninety-five percent of the children her age are doing better than she is. However, there was some spark there as I worked with her ...
SLOBOGIN: Evaluation teams were organized to help teachers figure out whether students really need special education or whether some other intervention might work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... get on yellow...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... and get all (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SLOBOGIN: Literacy programs were introduced for every kindergartner. Here, reading and other learning problems are detected early. As a result, far fewer children end up in special ed.
FINN: These are preventable. You don't have to wait until the kid's in third grade and say, yikes, there's a reading disability.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mad!
SLOBOGIN: Greenwich has brought special ed down from nearly 20 percent of the student body to only 13 percent. Costs are under control for the first time in years.
LULOW: We've had no difficulty in passing our budget the last three years, and in fact, we've returned money to the town each year out of our budget for the last three years.
SLOBOGIN: Tension between parents has abated. Lawsuits are way down.
TIMPSON: It's a much better environment to be in when you walk into a room and people aren't assuming you're the enemy.
SLOBOGIN: While politicians in Washington debate how to fix special education, it's classrooms like these that might give them the answer.
Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Greenwich, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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