Jonathan Pelto read the Connecticut judge’s funding decision, which many people were thrilled to see, and discovered that the judge harbors unbelievably negative views about spending money on children with profound disabilities. Pelto says that the judge’s views would set back special education by 40 years.
While the decision is an important milestone on the school funding issue, Judge Thomas Moukawsher’s Memorandum of Decision is nothing short of absurd, ill-conceived and simply wrong when it comes to Connecticut’s special education programs, the state’s illogical teacher evaluation system and the state’s over-reliance on the unfair, inappropriate and discriminatory Common Core SBAC and SAT testing schemes.
In his ruling, Moukawsher actually suggests that students should face even more standardized testing in Connecticut’s classrooms.
And of greatest concern is his unwarranted, outrageous and mean-spirited attack on special education services in Connecticut’s schools.
The truth is that Connecticut has actually been a leader when it comes to providing special education services to those who need extra help in the classroom. While issues certainly exist when it comes to adequately identifying and providing services to those students who have special needs, the underlying problem is not that students get special education services, but that Connecticut’s cities and towns are left with an unfair share of the burden when it comes to financing those extra educational activities.
In Connecticut, there has been widespread consensus that society and the state have an obligation to ensure that every child is provided with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to live more fulfilling lives and that includes children with special needs.
Yet in an stunning diatribe, Judge Moukawsher appears to suggest that Connecticut retreat from that commitment.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Oy! What in the holy ever-loving he!! does this judge think should be done with the profoundly disabled? Throw them under a bridge? Leave them at home for the parents to take care of until it gets too much for them? What???
Yes, Judge Moukawsher, they can, indeed, be taught, and they can, indeed, learn. They may not all (or even most of them) be able to go to college, or even vocational school.
But they can learn essential skills that will make their lives (and the lives of their families) better. Self-care skills, communication skills, perhaps sheltered workshop skills or even getting a service job.
Yes, I taught students who could (and did) learn to clean up at a fast food place or elsewhere, even help with housekeeping in motels and such. Not all of them, but a number of them. Even most of the ones too profoundly disabled for these jobs, could be taught toilet training and other self-care skills, some communication skills, swallowing food (yes, that needed to be taught to some, as well). Others could be taught not to be self-abusive or aggressive.
They are our children, too. All of them are our children, and not just those children who will grow up to pay taxes. Society has an obligation to them.
At least, a humane society does.
I would say more about this judge, but I don’t want my comment deleted by Diane.
Is it time for a glass of wine yet?
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Reblogged this on BLOGGYWOCKY and commented:
I am ready to go and punch this judge in the face. See my comment previously in Diane’s blog.
I’m still fuming at a judge who could be so lacking in any common human decency as to attack special education. Yes, cities, towns, and counties are left with an unfair burden that the state should help with. And so should the federal government.
They are all our children.
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Here is a quote from the NYT article about Connecticut:
“…The judge also criticized how teachers are evaluated and paid. Teachers in Connecticut, as elsewhere, are almost universally rated as effective on evaluations, even when their students fail. Teachers’ unions have argued that teachers should not be held responsible for all of the difficulties poor students have. And while the judge called those concerns legitimate, he was unconvinced that no reasonable way existed to measure how much teachers managed to teach.
“Why bother measuring students if it never has any direct connection to how they’re being taught,” he wrote….”
………
Sounds like another ‘blame the teacher’ if poverty level kids don’t learn. Disgusting.
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Sounds like judge with a Just World view, Darwinism, cost/benefit analysis, and a bit of old Sparta thrown in. Of course if HE was personally affected, the judicial opinion would have to be revised.
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I am reading the decision, and thus far I have to say that I think one needs to consider context here. I refer specifically to the judge’s referencing of a student in a coma versus a student who is deaf. I am only on p. 79, but so far I find much more to agree with than to be appalled by. And I only wish NH’s constitution was the same as CT’s where education is concerned,
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