This is incomprehensible. Mike Klonsky reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is cutting the budget for special education.
The city and the public schools are in a deep hole, financially.
But the budget can’t be balanced by firing teachers and aides for children with special needs, for two reasons. First, because it is morally wrong to make savings by taking away teachers from the neediest children. Second, because children with disabilities are protected by federal law. As Klonsky says, parents will file lawsuits, and the law is on their side.
Why not raise taxes on the 1%?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on yabbaman21 and commented:
I agree that teachers are what’s needed to teach Special Education students but the people must realize that cooperation is what’s needed with the Federal Government because they are the wealthiest 1% and the best way to cooperate is to negotiate respectfully from a legal standpoint because knowledge is power and it’s because of this fact the wealthiest will do whatever it takes to stay that way.
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“. . . that cooperation is what’s needed with the Federal Government because they are the wealthiest 1%. . . ”
I don’t understand to whom the “they” is referring. Please explain!
TIA!
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I’m not in the habit of defending Rahm Emanuel, but is it possible he’s trying to create a public reaction strong enough to justify a tax increase or cuts elsewhere? I doubt that even the wealthiest 1% want to deny special ed. kids. Perhaps the teachers can bring in Maria Shriver or another member of the Kennedy family to rally public opinion in behalf of special ed. and other students.
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In answer to your first question, no. That’s not how Rahm rolls.
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No. He told Karen Lewis soon after she was elected as CTU president that he wasn’t going to waste $ on the kids would never amount to anything.
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correction: …kids “who” would…
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That is disgusting. He should not be leading a major city if he fails to understand the concept of the greater good.
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jcgrim, you are right. Rahm told Karen Lewis that 1/4 of the students in Chicago Public Schools were not worth educating.
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The sad truth is that SPED families think someone is protecting their children’s programs via IEP’s from privatization & austerity. That isn’t true any longer.
Yes, SPED is governed by Federal law IDEA. However it’s implementation is only as good as Duncan’s Federal DoEd is willing to enforce compliance & monitor due diligence. in 2011, all SPED enforcement ended when Duncan defunded all of the state compliance agencies & OSEP declared it would end IEP compliance altogether & only evaluate SPED according to tests scores.
Underlying DoEd’s actions is complete abandonment of SPED by both political parties. In 1975 the feds promised 40% funding for states to cover SPED. NEVER in the 50 years since its passage have the feds given states more than 25%. States can justify cutting critical services to SPED because there’s no one assuring IEP’s are being met. Parents can go to court, but that takes years. The charter chains & privatizers are completely insulated from IEP lawsuit financial hits from those decisions- the hits are felt by the local district & taxpayers.
Hence, Rahm & the charter chains will do whatever they please because Duncan, OSEP or OCR are not lifting a finger for SPED kids.
Duncan has done more damage to SPED rights & service delivery than any other Sec of Ed in the 50 year history of IDEA.
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It’s not just Chicago. See Bob Braun’s Ledger 7-26-15 “Newark trying to force educators to talk parents out of sp ed programs.” The aim is to get parents to sign form that allows district to change student’s IEP without a meeting between educators & parents.
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Why not raise taxes? Because It is politically expedient for Rahm to pay tuition for more expensive private school placements than to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) -the two are inextricably joined – for students with Special Education needs.. I hope parents have a field day taking the CPS to due process hearings, where hearing officers will (I hope) uphold the federal and state laws. I won’t go into the long history of the Right to an Education on the federal and state laws that go back to the mid 1970s. I figure that blog readers already have an adequate knowledge base in that regard. In terms of moral judgement, well let’s just say that such judgement is nowhere to be found in Rahm
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Rahm is scum just like Arne. They are both cut from the same rag. It’s time for the feds to put up, that is, enforce the law and cut off this disregard of the law among these deformers. In many ways, the deformers are thumbing their noses at rights that people have fought hard to establish. The feds have been unresponsive or weak in reigning these fools in. Deprive special needs kids an appropriate education, in public education, never. The thinking in charter circles, too expensive and no benefit as far as testing is concerned.
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Over and over they balance their budgets on the backs of the most vulnerable and defenceless. It is the measure of their character that they do this. But this time federal law us on their side . If only the union will help the parents lawyer up.
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’cause Rahm works for the 1%, that’s why.
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” ’cause Rahm works for the 1%, that’s why.”
as does Cuomo and Obama/Duncan. What are earth is going on? Who works for the 99%?
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The usual and no one!
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Rahm’s targeted the unions, especially the teachers, who stood up for what’s right. They got in his way, and he likes to smash whatever gets in his way. This is nothing new. He had a reputation for this in Chicago that he brought with him to DC when he was Obama’s right hand man. Obama needed him in Chicago and Illinois and then to help win the Presidency and then again in DC. He typifies the aggressive, cynical sort that knows what it takes to get and wield power. But he pisses a lot of people of in that pursuit.
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The linked articles provide a map to how these cheaters cheat.
The details referenced here fall under the “All Means All” program being trialed with 102 schools.. SpEd monies are assigned as a lump sum per child (amounts vary according to three categories of need level). Staffing, instead of being estimated based on specific enrollment needs, has to conform to the lump-sums assigned.
Looks like voucher funding, doesn’t it. The method is already being used for mainstream students. As a ‘pilot’, All Means All, if “successful” will I imagine spread to the other 500 schools funding SpEd the ‘old’ way.
CPS justifies: there were 4.3% fewer SpEd students yet staffing increased 13%. A commenter at the original article notes these figures include 2010-15, during which period (a)common core was adopted and (b)school day lengthened 20%, both of which increased SpEd staffing needs.
Apparently cuts are distributed with no regard to individual school stats: in the Trib article, a principal cites a budget cut of $393000 [that’s 3 or 4 teachers– or 7 or 8 aides] yet their SpEd enrollment decreased by only 3 students.
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The “All Means All” method of funding must be an ALEC thing. Louisiana is trying it as well.
Can none of these deformers think for themselves?
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What is sad is that the schools might even be sued if a parent feels that a teacher with too large class sizes is not doing their job. The public tends to place the blame on schools, rather than on those who make the budgets. In TX I once had a class of 40 with 8 SPED and the rest ELL and I was an ELA/ESL teacher. My SPED teacher that year was never in class co teaching due to paperwork. It was my first year teaching, I really struggled. One parent was very angry about the lack of co teacher but unfortunately she blamed our principal more than the TX politicos.
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I am so sorry that the school district assigned you so irresponsibly. How can they expect teachers to make a dent with such insurmountable odds against them?
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Thank you retired teacher. I learned a lot that year:)
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Outputs, not inputs! You know the ed reform drill. After a while they’ll check the outputs and then expand the experiment regardless of results, because it’s outputs not inputs!
Tight/loose! Tight accountability on outputs, loose accountability on inputs! That drives innovation, like magic.
Most of ed reform can be described with language out of one of those 1990’s business seminars.
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I’ll let Arne Duncan. CEO of Schools, explain it to you-all if you missed the How To Succeed in Business seminar in 1998:
“At the end of the day, what I’m most interested in is getting those graduation rates to 100 percent, getting those dropout rates down to zero, and making sure that every high school graduate is college and career ready.”
Just bring him the numbers, people. How you do that is your problem.
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Have the feds done away with maintenance of effort? When I was a director of sp ed, districts had to maintain their financial effort from the previous year. If maintenance of effort still exists, Rahm will lose big time.
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Interesting new sped related info from TX
http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2015/07/how-can-cameras-in-texas-special-ed-classes-be-used.html/
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Don’t count on Arne’s Dept of Ed for intervention. They stopped regulating SPED in 2011 essentially signaling a free-for-all for schools to violate IDEA with impunity.
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Don’t worry, those special ed kids are among the ones Rahm says won’t amount to anything anyway.
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Because the 1% don’t want public schools. They want charters.
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We should have known what President Obama was all about when he appointed Arne Duncan as head of the Department of Education. Has he ever put in a progressive? There’s Froman, head of his secretive TPP negotiations, Geithner and Summers running his fiscal policies, Penny Pritzker, with a terrible anti-workers’ right agenda at the Hyatt, Victoria Nuland, Cheney’s former Asst. Secty of State running our fiasco in the Ukraine, and so many others who represent big money, never-ending wars, and the demise of public schools through charter schools. Obama never pushed for a public option on the ACA, leaving the insurance companies to raise their prices without government competition. Arne Duncan represents the private sector in education, meaning one more time, profit at the top, unaccountability as to teacher qualification, curriculum, budgets, testing, and which kids get in or don’t. It’s a scam. I spoke to a child last week who attends a charter school in Chicago and she said the parents have to buy just about everything because the school says it has no money to furnish supplies. We’ve created a monster. The scariest thing is that most people don’t know, don’t care, or feel so hopeless, they’ve give up. Emanuel was able to find the money for the insanely expensive lower-Wacker Drive project, but not for the needs of the special education children. They fight too-and-nail not to be taxed at the top, but have no regard for the people beneath them financially.
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TAGO.
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I despise the school system now or should I say the ones implementing the changes for their own personal reasons/gains. The way things are going with regard to the school system is disheartening. I also despise the charter schools that are now being allowed to set up shop, not school, in our communities. The teachers lack experience as well as the qualifications. This smells like nothing but trouble. I’ll be glad when the monsters come down and others are put in their positions who literally care about the well being of our children/future, SPED OR NOT……
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This is just the beginning for the deformers. First, deny the special needs kids an appropriate education, then the behavior challenged kid and the English learner kids. These groups are too expensive to educate and there is no benefit test wise to this effort. Ultimately, just scratch public education and let everyone sink or swim. What do you expect from someone like Rahm and Arne.
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There are a lot of lawsuits and legal challenges to much of what’s been happening in the area of education. They’re all standing on line. I have a feeling that they won’t see the light of day until the perpetrators have moved on to greener pastures or the system has gotten to the point where the challenges are meaningless.
As a long time teacher of special ed, I’ve had a nagging feeling that this is one of the key areas that the reformers have been targeting from the gitgo. It’s just a sensitive issue that’s not easily broached. Special Ed is very expensive and it’s federally mandated. It was a huge victory for parents of children with disabilities. Charter schools and a privatized education system would pull the teeth right out of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act).
And, yes: Rahm WOULD do this, folks. And feel confident in his ability to do so and his immunity from prosecution. He’s got some friends in very high places.
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Reblogged this on Exceptional Delaware and commented:
What a disgusting man! Parents of special needs kids need to unify again and march on Washington. This is becoming absurd, for a country with all the wealth America has, and the rich get richer while those with less give more. We need to take a stand!
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I am deeply offended by Rahm’s actions. As others have noted, special education does not receive sufficient monies for the federally mandated programs in the first place. Mr. Emamuel must have no experience with special education students, their parents and the wonderful programs that are designed to help the students maximize their strengths. I guess he was oblivious to the special Olympics just held here in Los Angeles. Yes, the Kennedys could certainly help educate Mr. Emanuel on the uniqueness of such students. I can only think of those babys in cribs in Romania back in the day. I guess he thinks that “coraling those students” is all we need to do. Shame, shame Mr. Emanuel.
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He’s saying it regardless of the public reaction. He’s saying it because he knows the repercussions won’t be severe. That’s what’s disturbing to me. Keep chipping away at the structure….
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But he (Rahm) is right now planning to spend monies on increasing one of the airports here in Chicago, but no money/budget for education, on any level. Shame on him and those who voted him in. My prayer, as with other citizens of Chicago is for him to resign or be forced to. Smh!!!!!!
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