I did not watch the debate the other night. You see, I'm just another lazy public school employee, and I was working until 10:30 PM writing up student assessments and translating them into Spanish, for the parents who don't speak English.
But some diarists here have picked up on Romney's comments about education during the debate:
ROMNEY: My own view, by the way, is I've added to that. I happen to believe, I want the kids that are getting federal dollars from IDEA or Title I -- these are disabled kids or -- or -- or poor kids or -- or lower-income kids, rather, I want them to be able to go to the school of their choice.
So all federal funds, instead of going to the -- to the state or to the school district, I'd have go, if you will, follow the child and let the parent and the child decide where to send their -- their -- their student.
Wow, I didn't see that one coming. But apparently, conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation are right there with him.
Not surprisingly, in the debate and subsequent interviews, there has been no followup, no questioning, no "Wait, what the hell were you talking about?" in response to Romney's radical new idea.
Some quick background:
Title I is a federal program that provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families. It provides about $14.5 billion total per year, to over 50,000 qualifying schools. Title I funds are used in various ways, but perhaps the most important is the implementation of schoolwide programs, which, by definition, benefit every child at the school, not just low-income kids. Schools have quite a bit of latitude in determining what kind of schoolwide program to use. In my district, for example, the Title I schools have committed to keeping class sizes very small in the lower grades (the typical kindergarten class has about 16 students, and even fewer in bilingual classes). Professional development, Response to Intervention, and other quality improvements may be included, too. The main point here is that Title I is not a sum of money packaged for each low-income child; it's a pool.
IDEA is the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, most recently re-authorized in 2004. IDEA requires a free and appropriate public education for children (up to age 21) with disabilities. Any of you with a child who has received special education services will be familiar with IDEA already, and all its terms and acronyms: IEP, LRE, procedural safeguards, and so on. IDEA provides about $11.6 billion annually to states and local education entities. IDEA serves at least 6 million students per year. Unfortunately, it has never been adequately funded - that $11.6 billion per year is nowhere close to covering school districts's special education costs. The main point here, too, is that IDEA does not send districts a specific amount for each child based on disability and services; it's a pool of money.
As Education Week's Politics K-12 blog explains:
Presumptive GOP nominee Gov. Mitt Romney called today for making federal funding for special education and disadvantaged students portable—meaning the money would follow students to any school their parents choose, including a private school.
Under his proposal, parents could also choose to use the funds under Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act at charter schools, for online courses, or for tutoring.
The obvious question is, just how the hell is this supposed to work? Not all Title I or IDEA kids are the same; not all need identical services. Mr. Romney, how about some details? Imagine two IDEA special education students, Abby and Ben. Abby has only a mild speech impairment, and receives 30 minutes/wk of speech therapy at school. But Ben has multiple, severe disabilities. He requires Life Skills classes; speech, physical, and occupational therapy; an orientation and mobility specialist; and an aide to help him with activities of daily living like eating and toileting. Will Abby and Ben each get the same flat voucher amount to put in their backpacks? If not, what formula will you use to determine how much each student should get?
And of course, Title I and IDEA help pay for programs and equipment that are not student-specific. For example, my district has all kinds of equipment to help kids with disabilities participate in regular PE classes with their peers. One piece of equipment may be used throughout the day by multiple students. I'm a speech therapist, and we have test instruments and therapy materials that we share across schools, when needed. It's not always cost-effective to buy software for one student with a learning disability, but it becomes much cheaper the more site licenses you buy. You see where I am going with this. Does anyone really believe that a tiny charter school is going to be able to provide all of this support on Johnny's $1000 voucher?
Of course, I'm not expecting an answer from Romney, but this is another perfect illustration of the fact that for Romney and his kind of people, there is no commons. We cannot help each other out by pooling money and investing in Social Security; instead, each of us should be at the mercy of Wall Street (and each of us paying fees) with our 401ks and IRAs (which won't be worth $100 million). We cannot help each other out by pooling money for insurance so that everyone can have health care. We cannot help each other out by pooling education funds so that all kids, no matter how severe their needs, can get the education they deserve. No, Romney's going to do away with any hint of collectivity; put a random dollar value on your child's education; and give him a coupon for Voucherville instead.