School is supposed to be for EDUCATION. It’s supposed to prepare people to function in society, and eventually get jobs, pay taxes, and contribute. Pouring enormous amounts of resources into teaching a 16-year-old how to fold laundry or match colors is not an “education.” It is a drain on money, staff, and attention from classrooms full of kids who actually can make use of academics.
I am not talking about kids who just need extra help like after-school tutoring in mainstream classes. If a student has ADHD, dyslexia, autism but is high-functioning, or a physical disability like blindness or paralysis, of course they should get accommodations. That’s what a fair education system would entail: the same academic content delivered in a way they can access it.
I am talking about programs for students who are cognitively decades behind their peers, kids with Down syndrome or severe intellectual disabilities, the ones who will never be able to live independently or function in the workforce without full-time support.
If someone is five+ years behind, can’t handle basic instructions, or melts down regularly, they shouldn’t be sitting in the same room as kids trying to pass state exams or prep for college.
If you are not working anywhere close to the grade you’re enrolled in, then you are not receiving a 10th-grade education. You’re occupying a desk in a building labelled high school
What’s the point of having a student in a general education classroom doing work that’s multiple grade levels behind when everyone knows they’ll never catch up? It’s a waste of time and space. Even the other kids are expected to accommodate by letting them win games to avoid tantrums (or looking bad) or helping them with assignments instead of focusing on their own.
The rest of the class are forced to sit, wait, and adapt to someone who will never be on the same level.
Sped money could go toward shrinking class sizes, better teacher pay, or actual interventions for struggling but capable students.
People get mad when you say this, but it’s obvious in daily life: even when individuals with significant cognitive disability work, those jobs are usually extremely limited, heavily supported, and often more symbolic than productive. Customers are expected to be “understanding” even if service is slower or uncomfortable. Even if one of them eventually becomes a grocery bagger, that’s not the standard of independence public education is designed to produce. Their “functioning in society” is very different from their peers.
Even in those cases, these kids often still need support into adulthood. They may have learned some job skills or basic life routines, but they haven’t learned what everyone else their age is supposed to know.
Public schools aren’t built to babysit teenagers who are permanently unable to meet the developmental or cognitive expectations of the general student body. We already have social services, group homes, and adult care programs for people with lifelong cognitive disabilities for this.
And we could use the saved money to build institutions to warehouse all those kids who would have had been wasting time and resources in special ed classes. Brilliant solution.
Making people with special needs somewhat self sufficient pays off for society. Every dollar that they can earn saves you a $ in taxes.
In addition, many people with an IEP - Individual Education Plan - can overcome their difficulties through education and can go on to become plumbers and doctors. It’s not just a make work plan.
I can’t figure out whether the OP is saying that special needs schools shouldn’t be taxpayer funded, or if special needs kids shouldn’t be in regular public schools. Special needs schools are funded by federal, state and local funds, and rightly so. I agree that special needs kids with serious learning issues should not be mainstreamed into public schools. It does them and other children a real disservice.
I have a niece who was oxygen-deprived at birth. She was deemed unable to learn or to function in society. After attending a special needs school for many years, she was able to get a job with the federal government (at a very low level) and is now approaching retirement. She was able to get a driver’s license and owns her own car. Her finances are strictly monitored by her older brother, who took over the chore from their mother after her death. She would never have been able to function in a normal public school setting, but because of publicly-funded special schooling has been able to largely support herself and have dignity in her life.
So you’re a Republican, I take it?
I believe the special needs of these students are met through public and private programs. Have you encountered a school system where this is still an issue?
I’m genuinely happy to hear your niece has done well and achieved some independence, but as I was saying, If someone is deemed unable to learn, the expense of creating an entire publicly-funded program for them is not a societal obligation. Special needs students should not be mainstreamed into public schools, and the cost of their education cannot be justified as a public expense.
You are correct. This small population is served by existing social and health care programs.
Yes, programs I am arguing should be cut for the greater good. Glad we are all on the same page here!
If special needs kids shouldn’t be educated, what are you proposing be done with them?
So you’re saying that the majority of education finding goes to special needs kids?
Could you provide a cite?
Is this really what is happening in the United States? Classes that can reasonably be described as college prep also have students 5+ years behind? When did it start?
While I do not support your whole post, I do believe in tracking starting in Grade 6 or 7 for academic subjects.
Jonathan Swift may have a Modest Proposal for you…
I don’t think you have anyone here so far in agreement with you. Assuming you are American, do you also think sick people and the elderly should lose Medicare/Medicaid?
Oh, I missed that part.
Shouldn’t the greater good benefit from their abilities, however meager.
Fortunately SCOTUS disagrees with you.
So I have to ask – why? Is the richest country in the world too poor to do the right thing by its citizens?
That is not what I said, I said a large amount of money.
I’m not following the precise lines of agreement or disagreement here. Is the OP saying that “mainstreaming” of severely learning-disabled students into the same classrooms as their age-peers, even though they aren’t functioning at anything like the same grade level, is inappropriate and should be defunded? There’s a case to be made for that, if all students can be better served by separate programs for their differing abilities.
Or is the OP saying that no public money should be spent on any kind of educational service for severely learning-disabled students? IMHO, that’s bullshit. Severely learning-disabled students are citizens just like you and me, and are entitled to the social and cognitive benefits of education appropriate to their capabilities.
No. They paid their dues to society, and someone with an untreated infectious disease could get others around them sick.
“The measure of society is how it treats the weakest members”
–Thomas Jefferson
Presumably so did the parents of the special needs kids.