TEXAS MUST NOT BE TRAPPED BY PUBLIC VOUCHER SB 1

Donna Garner – Well-meaning people are supporting the Taxpayer Savings Grants that is making its way through the Texas Legislature right now. Rep. Sid Miller has authored HB 33 and has filed it in this Special Session:

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=821&Bill=HB33

First of all, the estimated two-year net impact of HB 33 is $195,530,669 through Aug. 31, 2013 (according to Fiscal Note). During today$B!G(Bs severe downturn in the economy, it would not be good to make any changes that would cost our state almost $2 Million.

However, there is something that is much more important than HB 33 having an immediate negative impact on Texas$B!G(B pocketbook. HB 33 would destroy the academic excellence of Texas$B!G(B private schools.

Please let me explain:

THE SHACKLES OF SPECIAL EDUCATION LAWS

I cannot support the use of taxpayers$B!G(B dollars for use by students going to private schools (e.g., Taxpayer Savings Grants) not because of the usual argument ($B!H(BIt would take taxpayers$B!G(B dollars away from public schools$B!D!I(B) but because if a private school takes one penny of public dollars, then that school would fall under the IDEA regulations (Special Education).

If a private school accepts any public dollars (federal or state funding) of any kind, then that private school falls under the IDEA laws and has to follow all the Special Education laws. In fact, teachers can be sued individually if they do not follow the IDEA laws to the letter.

It is the IDEA process that keeps teachers in the public schools from being able to hold students accountable for discipline and for academic standards. When the other students see certain students (IDEA-designated students) not being held accountable for their behavior, homework, attention to detail, testing standards, etc., then the entire classroom environment collapses.

IDEA holds teachers back from helping students to learn self-control, personal responsibility, and a solid work ethic. IDEA students soon learn how to play the system. Once that happens, they quit listening and participating in class, doing their homework, studying for tests, reading their books; and these “special education” students learn to follow other self-destructive patterns.

The IDEA law was originally written by Congress to hold schools accountable to guarantee each child equal opportunities for success. Now that has been completely twisted around. Schools have to guarantee each child equal outcomes. In other words, if an IDEA student chooses to sleep in class, not do his homework, or cuss the teacher, the law says the teachers must hold an ARD meeting. At that meeting, the attendees figure out ways for the teacher to add more modifications — not what the student can do to improve his behavior and efforts.

The ARD changes the expectations for the teacher by lowering the expectations for the student. The teacher has to allow the student to receive passing grades by lowering the reading level on the student’s materials/tests, by having someone read out loud the student’s books, by giving him fewer homework problems to do, by allowing someone else to write his papers for him, by giving him a set of notes without his having to write them, by giving him two questions on a test instead of ten, and other such modifications. If his acting out in class is considered to be a “part of his handicapping condition,” then the teacher cannot hold him responsible for that bad behavior.

When the switch in the interpretation of IDEA laws occurred (I am not sure of the exact date but probably around the early-to-mid 90$B!G(Bs), millions of struggling students quit struggling. Once they knew they would pass without having to live up to the expectations set for the rest of the classroom, they fell into the self-destructive trap.

In private schools that accept no federal or state funding, teachers are free to work with students individually. Yes, there are many “special education” students going to these private schools; but their teachers are free to hold them to expectations that meet the child’s needs. “Special education” students know that they have to follow definite disciplinary and academic standards in private schools, or else they will be expelled.

This means that parents of private school children are more dedicated to making sure their children study for tests, do their homework, and act right. There is no IDEA “escape route” that takes away a child’s right to fail!

With that IDEA escape route blocked, it is amazing how much better these struggling students do. They find out that they can learn; they can do their homework; they can pass tests; they can behave according to teachers’ expectations. The wonderful thing is that these “special education” students begin to raise their academic achievement through hard work and improved behavior; success breeds success. Pretty soon they find themselves rising above their at-risk problems, and many of these students go on to achieve great academic success.

Not only are the ”special education” students blessed, but the classroom environment is not ruined for the other students. Everyone is held to a higher standard; everyone must behave, do his homework, accept responsibility for his own actions. No one is allowed to pass to the next grade without demonstrating effort, self-discipline, and personal responsibility.

I speak from experience. I taught in the public schools for twenty-seven years and for four years in private schools. Most of the teachers who leave the public schools do so because they are frustrated by the IDEA laws that kept them from doing what was best for their students. Teachers take a severe pay cut to teach in most private schools; but the cuts are worth it to be able to teach in an environment where there is discipline, fairness, and personal responsibility on the part of students, teachers, and parents.

One penny of state or federal money will destroy the private-school environment and will put the school under the control of the federal government.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS TIED TO OBAMA$B!G(BS NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL AGENDA

I am also afraid that if a private school takes one penny of public dollars, that school would have to follow the public schools$B!G(B curriculum. The reason parents put their children in a private school is because that private school can groom its curriculum around the values of that particular school.

I am afraid the Taxpayer Savings Grants would end up destroying the freedom that private schools enjoy. With the Obama administration taking over the public schools through Common Core Standards and Race to the Top, the idea of tying private schools to that federal agenda becomes all that much more frightening.

Private schools should not want to be tied in any way to the public schools$B!G(B curriculum requirements, tests, and/or IDEA regulations. Private schools need to be kept $B!H(Bprivate$B!I(B which means that their teachers and boards of trustees should decide what their students are to be taught and at what grade levels.

NEW VOUCHER PROGRAM IN INDIANA

Look what has happened in Indiana with their new voucher program:

On August 3, 2010, Indiana committed to the Common Core Standards and assessments. This means that the ISTEP (Indiana$B!G(Bs state tests) will be replaced with the national assessments that are tied to the Obama administration$B!G(Bs Common Core Standards. HB 1003, the new voucher bill passed by Indiana, will require private schools that accept the voucher dollars $B!H(Bto comply with state or national accreditation requirements.$B!I(B Private schools in Indiana that accept vouchers will be forced to indoctrinate their students into the Obama administration$B!G(Bs social justice agenda:

This is the way that the Common Core Standards and Race to the Top work. [The arrows mean $B!H(Blead to.$B!I(B]

National standards $B”*(B national assessments $B”*(B national curriculum $B”*(B teachers$B!G(B salaries tied to students$B!G(B test scores $B”*(B teachers teaching to the test each and every day $B”*(B national indoctrination of our public school children $B”*(B national database of students and teachers

8.3.10 — Indiana committed to Common Core Standards: http://www.doe.in.gov/news/2010/08-August/core_standards.html

Indiana$B!G(B New Voucher Program – HB 1003

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/wp-content/uploads/Regulations-Associated-with-HB-1003-Indiana-2011-05-20.pdf

Adam B. Schaeffer, Ph.D. May, 2011 Center for Educational Freedom Cato Institute 1

REGULATIONS IMPOSED ON VOUCHER-ACCEPTING SCHOOLS

BY INDIANA HOUSE BILL 1003

3) Requires private schools to comply with state or national accreditation requirements, annually administer the Indiana Statewide Testing for Progress examination (ISTEP), and submit both ISTEP and other progress and performance data to the state.

============================

HB 1003 — Indiana Voucher Program — http://www.homeworkwatcher.com/pdf/hb1003.pdf

Myth #4: Vouchers funnel public dollars to private schools, yet taxpayers have

absolutely no say in how voucher schools are run. Further, private schools are not

required to meet basic accountability standards, such as open meetings and records

law, or to release test scores, dropout rates, and other basic information.

Vouchers or state funded scholarships fund kids, not schools. Participating private

schools are required to be accredited as well as administer the state’s ISTEP assessment.

As a result, these schools will be held accountable and subject to the state‘s proposed A-F

grading system. Furthermore, private schools are subject to the ultimate form of

accountability which is that if a parent is not happy with the education their child is

receiving they can remove them from the school. Also remember that programs like this

save states money because it is almost always costs less to educate a child in a private

school than their local public school, particularly in urban districts.

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http://advocacycca.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/indiana-senate-passes-house-bill-1003/

Indiana Senate Passes House Bill 1003

Legislation Empowers Parents, Provides Quality Options for Students – 1 Vote Difference

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Media Contact:
Alex Damron, Press Secretary
317-232-6613, adamron@doe.in.gov

The Indiana Senate passed House Bill 1003 today, empowering Hoosier families to select the best schools for their children. Approved by a vote of 28 to 22, the bill creates a needs-based voucher program for qualifying parents to send their children to participating non-public schools throughout the state$B!D(B

HB 1003 aligns with the national accountability movement by requiring participating schools to be approved by the state, administer the ISTEP and ECA exams, and receive A-F letter grades just like traditional public schools.

Comments

Carl G. Shepherd

June 9, 2011 at 7:01 pm

The writer of this opinion is a perfect example of why older teachers need to retire when they can no longer commit to the education of the students that come, instead of the students they would choose to have. Ms Garner’s desire to blame the child for his disability is palpable, and her recitation of the fundamental prejudiced viewpoint experienced by most parents of a child with special needs would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

According to her, parents of these children are willing partners in helping their children to fail. The child himself, regardless of his disability, could adjust his behavior, habits, ability to hold a pencil, sight, etc. if he just would become–and here’s the ticket–typical.

Only he is not typical. He is a child with special needs, and IDEA was written entirely because of the attitudes of people like Ms Garner. Ms Garner would rather shun those children; put them away in some place far from her and her favored, mythical, perfect child who will receive her teachings as if her words are gold and all who are good will hear them and be blessed.

Only IDEA stands between her attitude and my child. My child has Down syndrome. He reads on grade level. He does math 2 grades behind. He contributes to his science, social studies and history classes to the degree he can. He gets that opportunity because IDEA requires the public schools to recognize his fundamental right to an education.

Would that Ms Garner, and people like her who hold these attitudes, retire and get out of the way of newly educated educators who are not only working with children under IDEA, but see them, and their parents, as valuable assets to the community.

Shame on you, Ms Garner. Find another line of work, and stop blaming your problems on children with disabilities.

Carl G. Shepherd,
Austin, Texas

Reply
Waiting to take kontrol

June 9, 2011 at 11:12 pm

Yup, that it is exactly!!! How did she know?

I do not why she is letting a closely guarded secret about IDEA out. It is supposed by closely guarded by TEA , school superintendents and their attys

With the power of IDEA behind us, no one cant stop us from taking control of all the private schools once this bill passes.

Now that a parent has found out, it will probably spread to other parents who do not understand who things are supposed to work.

It is actually a good thing to take control of private schools by federal law.

Signed

One Who Knows

IDEAsecrets.org

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Susan Thomas

June 10, 2011 at 2:56 am

Wow, that is perhaps the worst thing I’ve heard since I tried to entered an ice cream parlor in southern Missisippi in the 70′s and my grandmother made me exit the building until the “colored girl” left. I agree with Carl Shepard, apparently this generation just needs to die off because there are so many other committed educators to serving the needs of children with disabilities who have invested their educations and their careers for the advancement of these children. IDEA gave them a fair playing ground instead of being wherehoused off all by themselves and they are entitiled to each and every thing a non disabled person is entitled too. Donna, it sounds like your lack of patience with these children comes from your lack of scientific based researched methodologies that work with children with disabilities. Even the most severe non verbal children with autism that are self injurious are learning under one of these researched based protocols. That same child an educator like you wrote off, is actively receiving meaningful benefit from an education.http://www.halo-soma.org/main.php?sess_id= You ought to open your eyes and broaden your perspectives either that or your need to take your daily dose of Metamucil.

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Mrs. H.

June 10, 2011 at 1:05 pm

While I can appreciate Ms. Garner’s disdain for the IDEA, it is for wholly different reasons. Not because it allows students with special needs (no quotations needed) to skate and glide, but because it allows educators to marginalize these students via court-ordered lowered expectations.

The stated goal of Texas public education is to enable each child to reach their full potential. As soon as a child qualifies for services under the IDEA, however, it becomes a court-interpreted standard of slightly more than “minimal” progress – where school attorneys successfully argue that the IDEA does not guarantee a child make any progress at all – only entitled to an open door and nothing more. Is this the child and the parent’s fault?

Parents pushing for better for their children, or the level of research-based practices sometimes needed to provide the kind of behavioral tools required by some of the children Ms. Garner openly abhors in order to reach their potential (not to escape discipline, academic requirements or testing standards but to assist them in all of these areas) meet huge resistance due to lack of adequate training by school personnel.

These requests are often addressed by school districts using that same set of federal protections designed to level the playing field, IDEA, by a school district filing suit on a family. This hardball tactic most often occurs when a parent accesses what is supposed to be a procedural “safeguard,” and dares to request an independent evaluation. The district turning around and filing suit on that child, forcing a parent to choose between funding a booming industry of attorney involvement in education, or attaining critical services for their child, can be a highly effective strategy to push those students out of the school system and into those private schools that Ms. Garner so eloguently explains can do a much better job for these students – because of the LACK of regulation under the IDEA.

So why, then, is the concept of taking their tax dollars with them into a private placement so infuriating and threatening to Ms. Garner? Are these children undeserving of the same right to a free appropriate education as her prized chosen ones? And why is it that any time any sort of public funds are considered to support these students in community-based options, do her cronies cry – THEY WILL LOSE THEIR ESSENTIAL IDEA PROTECTIONS!!! – in an effort to thwart such efforts?

As long as there are educators like Ms. Garner allowed to come anywhere near our schools and students who can produce such thinly-disguised hate speech, and “news” sources (quotations required) like EducationNews that will promote such shocking and overtly discriminatory points of views, the education and future of our Texas public school students of any age or ability is in great jeopardy. May we pray for their futures, Ms. Garner’s soul and those of likeminded “educators” (again, quotations required.)

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Educator

June 10, 2011 at 5:40 pm

This “article” by Donna Garner is ignorant hate speech.

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- Mrs. H.
  
  June 10, 2011 at 8:41 pm
  
  I was going to call it ignorant too, but then I realized ignorance can sometimes be used as an excuse. This is inexusable bigotry by someone who should clearly know better.
  
  Reply
Texas Teacher

June 10, 2011 at 10:25 pm

So Ms. Garner, you and whoever lurks in the shadows behind you wants access to the public’s money without any of the United States of America’s human rights conditions? If the IDEA failed in your classroom, that’s your fault and the fault of your administrators, not the fault of the disabled child or his/her parents. By the way, I speak from experience also.

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- Jimmy
  
  June 10, 2011 at 10:29 pm
  
  Wasn’t the Eanes Independent School District where you worked have many serious charges against the district from parents seeking help with their kids.
  
  Reply
LyingLyingDonna

June 13, 2011 at 8:43 pm

(THIS IS NOT SPAM)

Donna Garner, “#1 Bonehead Conservative Award”

http://boneheadconservatives.blogspot.com/

“Bonehead Conservatives – embarrassing Texas as they verbally defecate on others and themselves.”

Reply
Link

June 15, 2011 at 1:08 pm

Response to this letter:

http://www.educationnews.org/commentaries/opinions_on_education/157914.html

Reply
E

June 21, 2011 at 6:34 am

I don’t understand why everyone is calling this “hate speech”. The author’s analysis cannot be applied to all special education students, but I have certainly seen cases where IDEA holds students back instead of supporting them. I think it would be better to keep decisions about special education and the like on the local level. I’ve seen excellent special education programs eliminated and children receive inferior educations in mainstreaming, and circumstances where teachers were forced to educate students in a way that was not at all helpful. IDEA is certainly well-intentioned and a good principle, but its application needs to take place on a case-by-case basis. I would be very upset also if its power was extended to private schools.

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