Abbott floats school choice as solution to special ed frustration

[TexasTowelie]

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott suggested Tuesday that the lack of special education services in Texas could be solved, in part, with more school choice.

In a briefing with reporters, the first-term Republican responded to questions about the state's longtime special education enrollment benchmark by predicting that it would soon be eliminated and then pivoting to a pitch for school choice.

A program that gives parents of special needs kids money to seek out the school that is the best fit would allow some schools to specialize in children with certain types of challenges and alleviate the current pressure on all schools to serve all students with all disabilities, Abbott said.

"It's financially difficult ... for every public school in every ZIP code to provide the full array of solutions for the unique special needs of who may be living in a particular zip code," he said. "It would be far more efficient to provide that money to parents for them to choose which school is best for their child, knowing that in the City of Houston, for example, where there are hundreds of schools, there may only be 10 that have the resource and capabilities of addressing the special needs of that particular parent's child."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Abbott-floats-school-choice-as-solution-to-10794219.php

[raging moderate]

1. His "solution" is not new. This is how they USED to do it.

Children who did not meet certain criteria used to be placed in special schools according to specific disability. Some of them rode a bus for an hour.

[Gothmog]

2. This is yet another stupid idea from Abbott

[DhhD]

3. Abbott is all about going back in time before a FAPE at the home campus or in a close by therapy

center, paid for by the home school district writing a grant for special needs, through IDEA funding. The US Department of Education Dallas Branch Office will come out to the district and HELP the Special Education Department write the grant. If a student's needs are set up in an IEP, then it is easy. The Texas Education Agency and/or the local school district saying that only a percent of students get that care, is against the law. The therapy or education should be on the same home campus as the peers.

Please feel free to look into any of the acronyms in this reply.

This is going to be a big deal because Trump wants a cabinet member to do away with IDEA's free appropriate education of persons with disabilities even though billions of dollars have been in the IDEA fund since 1990! This care is already established in all 50 states. I think that the Republicans want to convert the money into tax breaks for the wealthy and war machine contracts and leave students that are paralyzed laying on the floor How would they get into a school bus to ride home? IDEA pays for the special needs bus at no cost to the school district! This is just one case that should set the public to thinking. What an asshole Abbott is; he uses a wheel chair himself.