By the end of Edward Birch’s second year in office, the free-market approach to public education was thriving. Marginal and failing schools closed. Charter and magnet schools cropped up in every corner of Virginia; online and distance learning programs thrived; and private and parochial school enrollment boomed. Students became clients - schools that served their clients well, survived; schools that failed to serve their clients well, closed. In less than two school years, districting based on residency collapsed as students began moving freely across town lines. The free market competition for the coveted $5,000 state voucher was fierce. The elimination of the government’s monopoly over public education drove innovation in the classroom as
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The federal Individual with Disability in Education Act, American’s with Disabilities Act, Civil Rights laws, and a myriad of state civil rights and special education laws placed taxpayers on the hook for disabled students. Many of the most disabled students in Virginia were placed in highly specialized schools. The annual cost of these placements ran well into the six figures per child. These costs were shouldered by education budgets until the children reached the age of 25, at which time the burden was shifted to Medicaid, Social Security, and other disability entitlement programs. In-house specialized programming for students with less severe disabilities compounded the placement costs for the most disabled students. The required expenses for special education teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, behavior intervention specialists, occupational therapists, transportation, and other programming ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars each fiscal year. The sum total of these expenses strained school budgets to the breaking point. Included with legislation that transformed Virginia’s public education system into a voucher program was language that eliminated all requirements to fund special education programming. Children with disabilities were thrown into the same pool as their …show more content…
Late last year, she was forced out of a $150,000 a year specialized residential placement for children with Cerebral Palsy. Without financial support from her local board of education and the state, Heather was returned to her mother. Her mother is a real winner – Deborah Gellibrand. She’s a long-time prostitute and meth-addict. She’s been in and out jail her whole life. Heather and her mother live in a trailer park on the outskirts of Charlottesville. The $5,000 voucher Deborah receives for Heather’s education is quickly squandered on drugs. For the past year, all of Heather’s educational services and medical treatment stopped. Last summer, police responded to the trailer during a domestic dispute between Heather’s mother and one of her bereft boyfriends. The police found Heather on the floor in a small bedroom at the back of the trailer. The police report is pretty grim. Heather was dehydrated, malnourished, and covered in bodily filth. The mother and boyfriend were too busy cooking and shooting meth in the kitchen to bother with the girl,” William said. “Damn it all. I see where this is headed,” Sage said. “We’ve still got work to do on those damned drug laws. They continue to jam us up with stuff like this.” “Yup,” William said. “We knew these cases were going to crop up. It’s part of the equation - personal responsibility meets human
The federal Individual with Disability in Education Act, American’s with Disabilities Act, Civil Rights laws, and a myriad of state civil rights and special education laws placed taxpayers on the hook for disabled students. Many of the most disabled students in Virginia were placed in highly specialized schools. The annual cost of these placements ran well into the six figures per child. These costs were shouldered by education budgets until the children reached the age of 25, at which time the burden was shifted to Medicaid, Social Security, and other disability entitlement programs. In-house specialized programming for students with less severe disabilities compounded the placement costs for the most disabled students. The required expenses for special education teachers, paraprofessionals, administrators, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, behavior intervention specialists, occupational therapists, transportation, and other programming ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars each fiscal year. The sum total of these expenses strained school budgets to the breaking point. Included with legislation that transformed Virginia’s public education system into a voucher program was language that eliminated all requirements to fund special education programming. Children with disabilities were thrown into the same pool as their …show more content…
Late last year, she was forced out of a $150,000 a year specialized residential placement for children with Cerebral Palsy. Without financial support from her local board of education and the state, Heather was returned to her mother. Her mother is a real winner – Deborah Gellibrand. She’s a long-time prostitute and meth-addict. She’s been in and out jail her whole life. Heather and her mother live in a trailer park on the outskirts of Charlottesville. The $5,000 voucher Deborah receives for Heather’s education is quickly squandered on drugs. For the past year, all of Heather’s educational services and medical treatment stopped. Last summer, police responded to the trailer during a domestic dispute between Heather’s mother and one of her bereft boyfriends. The police found Heather on the floor in a small bedroom at the back of the trailer. The police report is pretty grim. Heather was dehydrated, malnourished, and covered in bodily filth. The mother and boyfriend were too busy cooking and shooting meth in the kitchen to bother with the girl,” William said. “Damn it all. I see where this is headed,” Sage said. “We’ve still got work to do on those damned drug laws. They continue to jam us up with stuff like this.” “Yup,” William said. “We knew these cases were going to crop up. It’s part of the equation - personal responsibility meets human