Republican lawmakers say expanding private school access gives all parents a say in their children’s education, but that’s not the case for parents of children with disabilities.
North Carolina ranks last in the nation in its approach to funding public schools, but that simply means that 49 other state legislatures care more about their public schools than North Carolina does.
Republican lawmakers have long underfunded public schools, with multiple courts ruling their efforts unconstitutional and ordering increased funding, and they devised a detailed “Leandro Plan,” named after a 1994 lawsuit, that outlines the funding needed to fulfill lawmakers’ constitutional obligation to provide a sound and equitable education for all students.
Lawmakers ignored the ruling.
Instead, Republicans in the state legislature are trying to pass a bill that would expand private school vouchers to low-income families, allowing wealthier ones to pay for their children’s education with taxpayer money.
Republicans argue that this so-called “children first” approach gives parents power over their children’s education and allows them to choose the school they want.
But as has been the case in other states that have expanded voucher programs, the majority of the vouchers go to wealthy families who already attend public school, leaving families with few options.
This is especially true in rural areas where there may be few or no private schools, and especially true for children with disabilities.
Private schools often advertise themselves as havens for special education students, but the reality is quite different, said Susan Book, a public school advocate who has a child with autism.
Book’s son, Emerson, will be in the eighth grade at Wake County Schools, and while they’re both happy with where his son is now, it wasn’t always that way.
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Wake County student Emerson Pope explains why public school funding is especially important for children with disabilities. Private schools can choose not to accept students with disabilities or charge parents higher fees. public school, public schools, school funding, schools, school choice, charter schools, public school funding, children with disabilities, children with disabilities, children with disabilities, helping children with disabilities, children with disabilities, children with disabilities
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“I tried to find private solutions to some very big problems in our public schools,” she said at a public school rally outside the Capitol this month.
“What I found was shocking.”
Private schools often have admissions requirements that students with disabilities cannot meet or may charge parents exorbitant additional fees.
Private schools, Book said, are “an unregulated market that is not intended to accommodate children with disabilities.”
We recently spoke with Book about his experience in private school and how the expansion of vouchers and continued failure to fund public schools are making the situation worse. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Cardinal & Pine: What is the current state of the school system’s capacity to adequately provide students with disabilities with the care and education they need?
Susan Book: Schools and education in general can be underserved when it comes to students with disabilities, and neurodiverse kids in particular, because the science is still developing. So a lot of institutions, private and public, are still catching up. So it’s really hard for schools to adjust their thinking about, for example, what is autism, what is ADHD, and so on.
We’re now discovering new facts, new treatments, new ways of thinking about autism and disabilities, and it’s going to take some time to catch up, which makes things like school very difficult.
You’ve spoken publicly about trying to find a private solution for your son Emerson’s education. What was that process actually like for your family? Did you feel like private schools were open to accepting Emerson?
The problem with private schools is they want your money, the state’s money, and they will sell themselves to you and tell you they are the best school for your child.
When I started getting my feet wet there, the amount of ads I got for private schools on Facebook was [enormous]Because my child couldn’t or wouldn’t take the entrance exam, I received a ton of adverts for schools that had no intention of accepting my child, meaning one of the first barriers to private school is the entrance exam.
Current law takes money from the public school system and gives it to private schools, but how can public schools solve their problems with even less money?
How does defunding public schools solve any of the problems? It doesn’t solve anything. Defunding public schools disproportionately impacts all vulnerable children, especially children with disabilities, who depend on all the extra help they can get.
One of the best things that kids with disabilities have in the classroom are instructional assistants. The more instructional assistants there are in the building, or the more helpers there are in the building, the more they can help a kid in a crisis, help them get down the hallway, make sure they’re not making noise in a crowded hallway before the bell. [the better]They are the unsung heroes of the disability world. When funding goes away, so does educational support. We’ve seen this first-hand. At one point, I think 7,000 jobs were lost in 10 years.
Is it because Congress has allocated too little money for salaries?
Yes. We are starting to lose them and they are not recovering. School psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists are key. If we don’t pay them what they deserve, e.g. [based on] The master’s degrees they already have just aren’t enough, and schools share these resources, if they have them at all.
So are private schools and expanded voucher programs the solution for parents of students with disabilities?
These are solutions for some parents [of children with] Disabilities. If your student has the right disability and is interested in the very specific philosophy of the school, they can use the voucher. But it’s not for everyone. There just aren’t enough spaces.
What new problems will the expansion of vouchers and a more privatized system create for families with students with disabilities in rural counties?
It will get worse as private solutions decrease. Some of our counties only have two parish schools. And some have no resources at all for students with disabilities. In fact, we are finding that people from other counties are coming to look at private schools in our larger counties. Rural counties are getting even more cut in funding than the rest of North Carolina. Private schools are also not able to retain special education teachers. They don’t need them. So they are sending their kids to schools that are simply not qualified to actually teach kids with disabilities.
What can and should people who care about this do? What is your focus right now as the bill is introduced?
First, you’re a parent. Whatever that may be, whatever the politics may look like, do what’s best for your child first. That’s your job as a parent. I’m not going to blame you for that. No one else should be blamed.
Secondly, always remember that you are part of a community and your community needs your voice, so if you have been hurt by your public school and the school is not working for you, speak up and let people know that there is a way to make the situation better.
The problem with the voucher solution is that it doesn’t help enough children, especially the most vulnerable and those with the fewest resources. So what do we do to help all children?
The solution for me is to strengthen our public schools and put as much money into them as we can. We’ve never seen what overfunding means. We’ve never even come close. We’ve never tried to put money into North Carolina’s public schools in a long time. So let’s see what that looks like.
It just goes back to that fight. We as parents have our own choices, and one of them is to get involved in the fight in our own public schools and make those public schools work for us.
