Carol Whitehead, who is superintendent of Everett (WA, US) Public Schools, has an editorial about funding problems for special education in the US state of Washington. Everett is one of 12 districts suing the state of Washington for its shortfalls in funding special education. Superintendent Whitehead argued that state needs to develop specific plans for using the state’s reserves to fund services for all of the state’s children.
Last month, Washington Learns released its final report after a comprehensive 18-month study of Washington state early learning, K-12 and higher education. Although this report provides a good blueprint for addressing key education issues, the state still has a long way to go in terms of meeting our students’ wide-ranging needs. Despite good intentions from the committee, the report contains no specific recommendations to resolve persistent special-education-funding shortfalls.
There’s an echo of the underfunding of special education by the US federal government, which has never lived up to its obligation to fund 40% of the costs of educating children with disabilities. Let’s hope that if the local education agencies’ suit is successful, those LEAs will spend the funds on promoting evidence-based instruction.
Link to Superintendent Whitehead’s editorial.
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