School Choice Ohio Blog

In what must be a huge frustration for special education teachers and aides, not to mention parents and students, The Columbus Dispatch reported yesterday on a state law that enables more school districts across Ohio to re-route special education funding away from special education.

As the Dispatch reported, the Ohio Department of Education has granted additional flexibility to districts in spending their special education dollars. Amazingly, the changes now mean that districts may be able to divert funds even if they aren’t making progress according to federal standards or educating students in the “least restrictive environment.”

Controls and tracking on how school districts spent funds generated to educate students with special needs were already sparse, but this gives districts explicit permission to use a portion of these funds on other things. Districts aren’t hesitating – $22 million are now being diverted statewide.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing is the constant refrain heard from school districts that special education is inadequately funded. If true, the diversion of additional funds that could have adequately funded educational services for students with special needs is unconscionable. If false, claims of inadequate funding go from being unconscionable to immoral.

Students must be funded based upon their educational needs, and the funds generated by the educational needs of students should be spent on providing services to those students. Sounds simple-but how could this be accomplished?

It is again time to revisit the idea of a voucher for students with special needs. A program of this type has been considered by the last three General Assemblies and with good reason. It puts the funds necessary to educate a child with special needs where it belongs-in that child’s educational program. You can learn more about the proposed voucher on our website.

A special needs voucher would give parents who are tired of financial shell games and who are frustrated at the services their child is receiving an option. This is an option most parents of special needs students in Ohio do not have.

While the transfer of funds designed for the education of students with special needs is frustrating, it is not the only evidence that the current system may not be working properly. In October, the Columbus Dispatch reported on a case challenging the way students with special needs were funded. That case took 18 years to make its way through the legal system (see our response here).

It is becoming increasingly clear that the status quo has to change. Placing the power in the hands of parents of students with special needs to choose where their child goes to school would do more than any regulation ever could to assure that school districts dedicate the resources necessary to provide these students with an appropriate education.

- Chad Aldis

The school voucher program in Washington DC is fighting for its life after political opponents cut funding and began phasing out the program this spring. While students already in the program were allowed to continue, new scholarships were rescinded and future applications have been blocked. This despite strong local support and federal studies showing academic growth for the 1,700 students who use the program.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s rationale for cutting the program? “I don’t think vouchers ultimately are the answer,” Duncan said. “We need to be more ambitious. The goal shouldn’t be to save a handful of children.”

But surely the goal isn’t to NOT “save a handful of children,” is it?

Our own state superintendent, Deb Delisle, had indicated a similar view on Ohio vouchers: “You’ve given some kids an opportunity and you’ve allowed other kids to just wallow behind in a failing school.”

Even setting aside for a moment the systemic changes that vouchers encourage, why would we (and, morally, how can we) prefer other people’s kids “wallow behind” in schools that by all accounts are not serving most of their students well and seem stubbornly resistant to reform?

And it IS largely a discussion about other people’s kids, right? Are those who oppose vouchers willing for their own children, neighbors, or grandchildren to languish or “wallow” without alternatives?

Parents whose own children were languishing but now use the EdChoice Scholarship easily expose the outrageous idea that students should be without options when their school is failing them.

“In his previous public school, I shed tears numerous times when I would leave him at the school and he would do the same. Now, with the EdChoice Scholarship, Blake is doing very well, learning a lot, and enjoying a peaceful learning atmosphere at school, which I believe EVERY child deserves.”  – Suzan

“Prior to EdChoice, the quality of their education always came down to affordability despite their aptitude. Now, with that financial barrier breached, our children are free to climb as high as their abilities will take them.”  – Jera

“EdChoice has provided my grandson with a fresh start for his future. Whether children grow up to become productive, confident adults or angry and destructive will depend, at least in part, on their experience in the educational system. If given the opportunity to choose which environment best meets the needs of our children, I believe we will see more successful adults in the future.” – Nita

You may be familiar with the starfish story: “It made a difference for that one.” Here in Ohio, 20,000 students who use vouchers are among the ‘starfish’ that have a better foundation for the future because of school choice.

No, vouchers don’t ‘save’ everyone – but each child who moves from wallowing to a chance at success represents a victory.

- Sarah Pechan

On Wednesday, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute hosted a simulcast panel discussion on the future of charter schools and vouchers. The panel featured national experts including Ohio’s own Dr. Susan Zelman, namesake of the famous Zelman v Simmons-Harris US Supreme Court case based on the Cleveland Scholarship.

Much of the discussion landed on questions of accountability for schools outside the local public school district. Those same questions have routinely been raised in Ohio.

Accountability can take lots of forms, but the greatest attention is given to academic accountability (testing). Charter schools take all the same state tests as district schools and face closure if they don’t show student achievement. And private schools are both accountable to paying customers (parents who are free to leave the school if they feel it fails to educate their child) and required to administer state tests to students who receive vouchers.

Still, the question has been raised: When a school accepts state vouchers, how much information should the public have about student achievement?

At School Choice Ohio, we believe the student achievement of a student using a voucher matters and these students’ test scores should be among the information made public.

That’s why we supported landmark legislation in the latest budget that requires the Ohio Department of Education to report test scores of the students who use the EdChoice Scholarship and the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program.

These recent changes to Ohio law will put our state on the forefront of voucher accountability nationwide. Parents will have more information about how their children are doing and the public will have information about the investment they’re making in scholarship programs with tax dollars.

- Sarah Pechan

Crayons, pencils (endless supply), notebooks (spiral, perforated, wide rule, single subject, five subject…the variations are endless as well as the want of each individual teacher), ink pens, tissues, etc.  This is the supply list that many parents are familiar with and when you add on to that school clothes, shoes, socks and other school necessities, even with good back to school shopping deals, somehow you still seem to be out the same amount of money if not more than last year.

Going back to school is fraught with anticipation and anxiety alike for both parents and students.  We want our children to excel and in most cases children want to excel also, but can quickly succumb to learning handicaps from which they may never recover.

As we pack lunches and ensure that every labeled item is in that spanking new backpack, parents and students alike harbor an unspoken hope for the year:  that students will enjoy learning. This not only means the ability to place your child in an environment that is safe and conducive to learning, it also means arming your child with the knowledge of why he or she is learning.  A learner’s bill of rights, if you will.

Curious as to whether someone was inspired to create such a bill of right’s for learners, I came across two that speak to the nature of learning and also why school choice is important. If children are to exercise these rights, the ability is often found in a parent’s ability to choose the best school that fits the individual needs of their child.

John Harris Loflin who is with the Democratic Education Consortium in Indiana has creatively combined a learner’s bill of rights with the music “Get Up, Stand Up” on YouTube.  He describes the ideal school as a place where children want to be and he believes that these rights are inalienable and fundamental human rights.

Very similar in nature to Loflin’s but more succinct and tangible are the bill of rights penned by Kirsten Olson in her newest book Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture.  Olson states:

1.       Every learner has the right to know why they are learning something, why it is important now, or may be important to them someday.

2.       Every learner has the right to engage in questioning or interrogating the idea of “importance” above.

3.       Every learner has the right to be confused and to express his confusion openly, honestly, and without shame.

4.       Every learner has the right to multiple paths to understanding a concept, an idea, a set of facts, or a series of constructs.

5.       Every learner has the right to understand his or her own mind, brain, wiring, and intellectual inclinations as completely as possible.

6.       Every learner has the right to interrogate and question the means through which his or her learning is assessed.

7.       Every learner is entitled to some privacy in their imagination and thoughts.

8.       Every learner has the right to take their own imagination and thinking seriously.

So, let us add on to our list of back to school supplies a learner’s bill of rights. After all, all the supplies in the world are just meaningless instruments if children do not understand what they are learning and why they are learning.

 — Tisha Brady

Most people can imagine that the parents of kids who have special needs lead busy lives. Between appointments with specialists, doctor’s visits, making sure siblings aren’t lost in the mix, and keeping up with daily life, these families have added challenges (and joys).

With all of these added dimensions in their lives, families have enough on their plate without having to fight for their child to receive an appropriate education.

But many do spend valuable hours, days, and years fighting to convince skeptical schools that their kids with dyslexia can learn, they just need to be taught differently. Fighting to secure services they know will jumpstart their kids’ learning. Fighting to ensure that their kids with developmental delays have a chance to live independently.

Parents of students with autism have a way out of the fighting. It’s the Ohio Autism Scholarship, the first of its kind in the nation.

This tax-funded scholarship is a form of follow-the-student funding touted by education reformers nationwide. Parents can direct $20,000 (a fraction of the roughly $30,000 designated for these students in public schools) to the private education services they prefer. They can combine early intervention services, private schools, and cutting edge therapies – in other words, parents are empowered with options.

What difference has it made? Public schools step up their game, kids aren’t stuck in a holding pattern, and innovative ways of teaching kids with autism are expanded. Ohio is becoming known as an “autism-friendly state,” and parents are free to focus their energy more on helping their kids and less on fighting to get the services their child needs.

Shouldn’t this same opportunity be available to students with other learning differences and special needs?

Want to help this solution become a reality? Read up on the proposed special education scholarship legislation we mentioned last week, share your story with us, and tell your state legislator about it. Let’s all be a part of the solution.

- Sarah Pechan