School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education
I see Washington Post Columnist Jay Matthews as someone who usually cheerleads for privatization of public schools. I take issue with his Sunday Washington Postarticle “How can a special education student fail finals yet pass? Sadly, it’s easy.”
Oh help! Is this not a case of the right hand not being able to find the left hand of reform?
Matthews laments over a father’s issues with not being able to get realistic services for his daughter, who has learning disabilities at the well-respected Walt Whitman High School in Montgomery County, Virginia.
Oliver Hirschfeld’s daughter is a senior, and while she got the special education services she needed in ninth and 10th grade, she didn’t get self-contained classes in 11th and 12th grade.
I have a tough time learning the material, she said in reference to the large regular class sizes.
Now she is being passed through classes without getting the skills that would help her get into community college, and Mr. Hirchfeld and Matthews are critical of the school pushing the student through and not giving her a smaller self-contained class placement.
Well join the club! Many students are now disengaged from meaningful IEPs. It is more School Reformers Who Blame Public Schools for Eliminating Special Education: