Posted: Friday, April 26, 2013 5:00 am | Updated: 7:45 am, Fri Apr 26, 2013.
The state formula for funding special education is so divorced from reality that its survival until now is truly remarkable. The funding is based on an estimate (guesstimate?) that special ed students make up 16 percent of the overall student population in each school district. It’s not difficult to see how such a rigid formula can’t possibly address the real-life numbers of special ed kids in individual districts. Schools where those numbers have been increasing have found it particularly difficult to properly serve physically and mentally challenged youngsters.State Rep. Bernie O’Neill, R-29 — who likely understands the plight of these students better than most of his colleagues, since he spent 25 years as a special ed teacher — has been a sort of champion for special education funding reform. In 2012, after working for several years to craft a measure to change the system, his legislation became so corrupted by amendments and Harrisburg politicking that he refused to support it. “I had such an empty, hollow feeling,” he recalls. “Last year, the process was so frustrating.”
Unfortunately, it’s that way with a lot of necessary, well-intentioned bills that come out of the legislative meat grinder rewritten and watered down. Those very often are the “success” stories. O’Neill’s effort simply collapsed.
But knowing the special education problem would only get worse, O’Neill kept at it. And now, his House Bill 2 (the companion Senate version is SB 470) needs only Gov. Corbett’s signature, which a spokesman for the governor says is likely.
The new law will establish a 15-member panel to direct money to those districts where it’s needed the most. Critical to the bill, according to O’Neill, is a requirement that each school district must compile a three-year average of the actual number of students requiring special ed services in each of three categories of disability, ranging from least- to most-intensive. “Students will now have to be counted for reimbursement purposes,” O’Neill said.
Makes such perfect sense.
A big reason the legislation cleared both chambers by unanimous vote was because it was unencumbered by the kinds of other objectives and agendas that doomed O’Neill’s bill last year.
O’Neill credits Republicans and Democrats in both houses for keeping his measure “clean” this time around. But he himself deserves a lion’s share of the credit for sticking with the legislation, and ultimately helping to ensure students with special needs get the help and support they deserve.
But knowing the special education problem would only get worse, O’Neill kept at it. And now, his House Bill 2 (the companion Senate version is SB 470) needs only Gov. Corbett’s signature, which a spokesman for the governor says is likely.
The new law will establish a 15-member panel to direct money to those districts where it’s needed the most. Critical to the bill, according to O’Neill, is a requirement that each school district must compile a three-year average of the actual number of students requiring special ed services in each of three categories of disability, ranging from least- to most-intensive. “Students will now have to be counted for reimbursement purposes,” O’Neill said.
Makes such perfect sense.
A big reason the legislation cleared both chambers by unanimous vote was because it was unencumbered by the kinds of other objectives and agendas that doomed O’Neill’s bill last year.
O’Neill credits Republicans and Democrats in both houses for keeping his measure “clean” this time around. But he himself deserves a lion’s share of the credit for sticking with the legislation, and ultimately helping to ensure students with special needs get the help and support they deserve.
1 comment:
MSD should benefit from this, correct?
Post a Comment