The Politics of IDEA Funding
The convoluted politics of special education funding do not benefit the students the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is supposed to help.
Despite all the attention being paid to Iraq, the fight against terrorism, and the economy, a must-do item that remains on the congressional agenda in Washington is passage of spending bills to fund the federal government for the coming year. Not surprisingly, education spending will again cause partisan contention, especially when it comes to special education. A bruising fight is likely with, for the most part, Democrats demanding "full funding" for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Republicans and the Bush administration resisting. However, the IDEA itself is also in the process of being reauthorized, giving policymakers a chance to end this stalemate and seize the opportunity to increase IDEA funding while funding the law differently and smarter than we do now.
The politics of special education funding are bizarre. Only a few years ago, it was Republicans demanding that the federal government make IDEA funding paramount, and Democrats arguing the other way. During the mid- to late-1990s, almost every time President Clinton proposed a new education initiative, Republicans responded with calls to instead fund IDEA first. Democrats were often bewildered when local educators were sympathetic to the Republican position. How, they wondered, could anyone prefer IDEA funding to initiatives for smaller classes, after-school programs, or school construction?
Of course, from the point of view of superintendents and principals, the chronic underfunding of special education was part of the cause for shortfalls in these other areas. Local educators care little whether Republicans or Democrats are championing IDEA funding when they're struggling to make ends meet in their budgets. During the late 1990s, Republicans astutely picked up on this demand and made it part of...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or purchase this article.
Subscribe to Education Week and Save
Get a full year and save up to 45%!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- Program Coordinator
- Institute for Educational Advancement, South Pasadena, CA
- Principals
- Prince George's County Public Schools, MD
- 2 Positions -Associate Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, and Director of Human of Resources
- Washington County Public Schools, Hagerstown, MD
- K-8 Principal
- EdVantages/Performance Academies, Detroit, MI
- Superintendent
- Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County, FL
