As Detroit Public Schools Shrink, Proportion of Special Ed Kids Soar

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1. "2old2tch" says:

   January 4, 2013 at 11:30 am

   Heck. Why don’t we get it over with and just fence “them” off? We are rapidly heading back to the days when nobody even admitted that society had a duty to educate these children.

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   • flerper says:

     January 4, 2013 at 1:46 pm

     I can see you haven’t been to Detroit anytime in the last 30 years.

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     • "2old2tch" says:

       January 4, 2013 at 7:07 pm

       I got lost in Detroit about 25 years ago. The section I drove through looked like a post apocalyptic stage set. I stand corrected. We never felt that society had a duty to educate these children although we had some pretty good lip service going for awhile there.

2. Tim says:

   January 4, 2013 at 11:39 am

   Some States use an average cost distribution for IEP students to charters. So as charters “cream” the “less costly” higher functioning IEP students and leave the more challenged students in the public schools, they actually receive a higher amount to educate these students.

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   • Galton says:

     January 4, 2013 at 12:36 pm

     A child with a lisp is a bit easier to handle vs a deaf child.
     The data often used to show under representation of SPED students in Charter schools does not even “tell half of the tale.”

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     • Linda says:

       January 4, 2013 at 4:58 pm

       And wait until you are responsible for educating the abused, emotionally disturbed, oppositional defiant teenager!

3. KrazyTA says:

   January 4, 2013 at 12:18 pm

   As someone who worked as a spec ed TA, I can testify to the vast differences that can exist between students with IEPs.

   To add to your comment: after working for years with the same students, and getting to know them well, I began to question whether or not they were all properly placed. I then consulted with a number of the veteran teachers I worked with and asked them a very simple question: “How many of the students on your [homeroom list] really need to be in special ed?” To a person they said either slightly more or slightly less than half. From my own firsthand, years-long experience with their students, I agreed. Some teachers added that special ed had been turned into a very sneaky way of disguising the number of students who needed some form of remedial education, so students with genuine learning difficulties were mixed in with students who did not have similar learning difficulties. In addition, I noticed that the school district had a tendency to classify students who had been through the juvenile justice system [for serious offenses] as qualifying for an IEP. Again, since I worked with these students, I knew that many of these students were not just average in their academic abilities, but in a few cases were fairly high achieving.

   So here’s the scam: take the least difficult to teach students with IEPs, including many who were dumped in there by educrats who want to make themselves look good by making the numbers look good, mix in the charterites/privatizers, and voila! charters have marvelous success “with the same kinds of special needs students who fail in public schools.”

   Folks, it’s all smoke and mirrors, and even amateur magicians would be ashamed to attempt such clumsy slight-of-hand.

   Disclaimer: nothing I said above should be construed as maligning the many many fine people who have devoted themselves to special needs students, many of whom [I know this from person experience] are themselves parents and foster parents of special needs kids. These folks worked “special ed” 24/7. They deserve our support and respect.

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   • retiredbutmissthekids says:

     January 5, 2013 at 1:55 am

     KrazyTA–I always appreciate your posts. This one is dead-on, & as a retired SpEd Teacher, I certainly don’t feel that you wrote anything offensive. Having taught in grades K-8 for 35 years, your report is absolutely true. I would add, too, that I had numerous LD students who were also gifted (twice exceptional). And, as for part of the definition of LD “having average or above-average intelligence,” my experience was that the majority of my students possessed above average intelligence. Therefore–and I’d bet the house on this–you KNOW those charter schools are skimming these kids off like cream.

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     • KrazyTA says:

       January 5, 2013 at 2:23 pm

       retiredbutmissthekids: when posting online the very human and expressive qualities we try to bring to the classroom are often missing. For example, a sarcastic comment turns into a simple statement of opinion.

       So I want to make this perfectly clear: I am humbled and sincerely grateful for your kind words.

       🙂

4. KrazyTA says:

   January 4, 2013 at 12:21 pm

   Oops! Miswrote.

   Change “Again, since I worked with these students, I knew that many of these students were not just average in their academic abilities, but in a few cases were fairly high achieving.” to “Again, since I worked with these students, I knew that a few of these students were not just average in their academic abilities but fairly high achieving.”

   Ouch!

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5. CEELO! says:

   January 4, 2013 at 2:31 pm

   Welcome to our world. Give me your hungry, tired masses….
   Horace Mann would not be proud
   Schools that would be the great equalizer would become a gross neglect of our nations most precious children.
   Can you post schools that have significantly large Special Education and ELL populations?
   Why have we allowed this?

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   • Harlan Underhill says:

     January 4, 2013 at 8:23 pm

     It is a mistake to see schools as the great equalizer. The only equalizer is good morals. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. knew that, but these days it has been forgotten.

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     • Linda says:

       January 4, 2013 at 8:25 pm

       Sorry don’t think I want any advice or tips from you, especially in reference to morals.

     • "2old2tch" says:

       January 4, 2013 at 11:37 pm

       I find myself agreeing with you in part, but we should never stop trying to have our institutions model good morals.

6. DeeDee says:

   January 4, 2013 at 9:22 pm

   This is a crime!!! Arne Duncan where are you? You should be making speeches and trying to “right” this problem. Instead you have promoted a system that has made this problem worse. Well, it’s all going as planned. Allow charters to get away with not providing Fape to all children and leave the costlier bills to the public districts. A shameful indication of the “corporate” business model. Just one big joke! Yes, you’ve allowed charter CEOs to buy big houses, buy fancy cars, and walk around in fancy suits while special ed students are run out of these schools.

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7. retiredbutmissthekids says:

   January 5, 2013 at 1:57 am

   Or–as one superintendent told parents at a meeting in 1976, “You are welcome to keep your kids at home in the closet!”

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