Supreme Court and vouchers

I haven’t seen this decision. I would really like to,can you provide a link??
Thanks!

I will provide my insights on the voucher,being a parent participating in one.

The Florida voucher specific for LD students provides state funds. These state funds is the amount the student generates from their IEP. The student recieves no other funding. This means,if the school whom recieved the funds prior,spent every penny of what the student recieved in funding on the student,( which by the way would be the only legal thing to do)this student would no longer be in their system to educate. They would not lose anything. Not only that,but upon doing a senate analysis the appropriations committee showed the state actually saved upwards of a million dollars,less staff needed,less paperwork needed,less kids to find a placement for,less kids to screw out of related services.If the system is mad about the money leaving,my question is, why is that? Who does the funding belong to?

BUT on the issue of constitutionality,I feel the students particpating are in some ways being denied. For example,to participate the parent only needs to be dissatisfied with the public school placement. My question is why are they dissatified? This in many,many instances means the student had an inadequate IEP,or were denied services etc. The funding is generated directly from the inadequate IEP,therefore leading the student to a private placement with the same inadequate funding as they had prior. This can cause,an inadequate placement due to the fact that the student lacks funding for services they might need. Make sense?

Not to get off the subject, but how do you detemine where your child’s sped funding is coming from. My child receives nothing other than accomodations and modifications in the classroom and the resource teacher who floats around the school. I really don’t think that my son costs them any money, but they are probably getting money (fed and state?) for his identification, right? On his IEP he is listed as being under Fund “A” if that means anything.

So, if he is not getting any OT, PT, etc. he is not costing them anything, yet they are collecting on him. Am I wrong?

Anne,

I would only hope that could come out of this, unfortunately, I think this would only be a dream. It sounds good, but what is the reality of it happening? I think it is only going to cause more problems especially for kids who have special needs. Private schools will not be required to help them. Or will this open up the whole thing about them having to because they would now be accepting federal money? Would they still have the option to admit anyone they wanted and refuse those they wanted to? It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

Check your state appropriations and look for fund A,this would be the amount . This is just my point. Just for a reality check of what I am saying here;
For a student who does not have any related services,such as OT,Laptop,etc. Ones with only accomodations and maybe a visit to the resource room everyday,the funding is around 3600 per year. The cheapest school I know of is the one my kids go to and that is 5900 a year.So you figure it out. WHo is really make out? after it is all said and done,the school doesn’t have to try and educate a kid on 3600 a year,right?
The statute for this program used to mandate that a school had to accept the funding a full tuition,but the statute was ammended.

Looks to me like the religious right has found a back door to turn America into a theocracy. I say keep your god in the church and I’ll keep my god in the church. Public education will become private education paid for by taxes. I wonder if while GW was at Yale’s Skull& Bone Society sitting around a pentagram worshipping satan and drinking human blood from skulls he came up with vouchers. I think most organized religion is Satanism ( look at the R. C. church) So forget about IEPs ADHD kids will get excorsisms. ADD kids will get spanked by some pervert. LD kids will be ridiculed worse.

I looked on the website for schools accepting the McKay scholarship funds in my county. Very very few were oriented towards special education. Mostly either private schools or parochial schools. I couldn’t help wonder whether this was really going to help, at least in my county. Also, it looked like some people had somehow started their own school of 1 student???? Looked like homeschooling with a state budget to me. Not a bad idea but still wondering.

A visit to the pediatrician has resulted in a referral to a neurologist and I am less inclined than ever to think my kiddo will ever succeed in the setting he is in. I think I just want to move to where you live and have my son attend school with your boys! Don’t see anything very promising here.

Beth

I’m on the Wright mailing list and found this in
my email today

ALERT! U. S. SUPREME COURT ISSUES DECISION IN RELIGOUS SCHOOL VOUCHER CASE

On June 27, 2002, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that a voucher program
that allows public school students to attend private schools, including
religous schools, is constitutional and does not violate the Establishment
Clause.

Although this case is called “the school voucher case”, the word “voucher”
is not mentioned in the majority opinion. Instead, the decision focuses on
issues related to using tax dollars to support a religious institution.

The decision begins with this statement:

“The State of Ohio has established a pilot program designed to provide
educational choices to families with children who reside in the Cleveland
City School District. The question presented is whether this program
offends the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. We
hold that it does not.”

In the second paragraph of the decision, Chief Justice Rehnquist describes
the dismal state of public education in Cleveland and the impact this has
on poor children who attend Cleveland public schools.

Can we assume vouchers are here to stay? If Congress acts to overturn the
impact of Zelman, how will it address vouchers for private schools that do
not have a religous affiliation?

Read a discussion of this decision by Pete Wright:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/zelman.analysis.pw.htm

Download the decision in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris from the Caselaw
Library:

http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.zelman.harris.htm

The site url, for anyone interested in subscribing is
http://www.wrightslaw.com

Anne

Yes,Beth,the one kid school is called an umbrella school. This was the only way for a parent to homeschool their kid and be given the opportunity to do it with state funds,which WE pay anyway! Personally,if I hadn’t found my school,this would be the route I would take.
And the other possibility is a school agreeing to take one student on McKay funds.

Let me know when your ready to move,:-)

Thanks! Anne:-)

Ten years ago, when my own son was struggling to learn to read and I could find no one trained to teach him, I wished for any school—religious or otherwise—that could help him read. I finally took training myself (and got my teaching degree/certifications). I have since taught him and many other children and adults to read using Orton-Gillingham, Lindamood-Bell, and several whole-language methods, as well as fluency programs and Visualizing and Verbalizing.

I have worked in public education for two years and have only met one person willing to take enough training to be ready to teach a diverse population of learners.

I wished for vouchers the whole time my son was in school because public education just isn’t willing to put the pressure on higher education (universities and colleges) in the teacher prep market. I felt an exodus would prompt the humility in spirt needed to affect a change…

I hope now is that time. Parents need that choice!

You said it!

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Yes, parents need a choice but did you see the puny dollar amounts vouchers are worth?
If an school such as a private LD school has a waiting list miles long, why would they accept vouchers?

The average $ amounts the voucher proponents are talking about are $3k per year. The tutoring dollar amounts would not even last a day at a lindamood bell clinic. LD schools in my part of the country cost from 12K to 18K per year. In Ca where I live the last $ amount that was tosssed around was $5K, that is still a drop in the bucket. An LD student has a better chance to mediate/due process the district and get tuituion paid for rather than have $3-5k handed over to a parent and being expected to furnish an adequate education for an LD kid! FAPE is a powerful right! Vouchers could take it away.

In the long run I seriously doubt most private schools will accept vouchers unless there is a major decrease in the population. Even so, at some point they will not be allowed to pick and choose students as they do now because that practice will stop if they accept federal funds. Lots of regular private schools have good scores because they only pick the smartest kids. It doesn’t mean they are necessarily better.

lk