Special education students deserve much better

We’ve been scammed. We’ve supposedly been providing specialized academic instruction for our state’s disabled public school students so that they receive an equitable education – but it turns out that that’s not happening.

In the spring of 2016, we tested grades 3-8 in English language arts and math. The state scores for the special education students were awful. After all the intervention they supposedly received, only 13 percent met grade level standards in English and only 11 percent met standards in math – far lower than their peers.

But because it was the first year of the new state testing, we expected that they would do better the following spring.

They didn’t. The scores for the spring 2017 tests are far worse. Only the districts with less than 5 percent economically disadvantaged students had good special- education test scores. Maybe those parents can afford an attorney.

Special education services are expensive. We taxpayers pony up twice as much to educate these students. If it worked, it’d be worth it. We need graduates who can contribute to society. Whatever way we’re doing it now has to change – drastically! We deserve results.

This story was originally published September 23, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Special education students deserve much better."