Not-so-special Education

This week, Educhatter writes about “The New Byzantium” - the maze of intricately-involved, elaborate systems that “serve” children with special needs. Replete with cryptic acronyms, obscure regulations, pseudo-scientific terminology, and a massive administrative staff, Special Education is - despite the lack of popular demand - growing by leaps and bounds. In Nova Scotia, for example, the number of special education students has grown by 3%-4% per year since 2001, even while overall student enrollment has declined by 2%-3% per year. The best advice available to parents is to “build a positive relationship with the school ... to win special attention for your child”. 

And it’s not just in Nova Scotia. Because children with special needs face exactly the same situation in Ontario (including extremely long waits for testing and treatment), a while back the Fraser Institute made a modest proposal to Let the Funding Follow the Children. In this scenario, the government gives about three-quarters of the funding it would normally spend on the child if he or she attended a public school to the parents and allows them to spend the money at a private school instead. This already happens in three Canadian provinces and several American states, with excellent results. Not only are the children better off, but also the government actually saves money. And even the kids whose parents don’t choose this option are better off - as the number of public school students jostling for special services declines.

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