Special Ed. Vouchers May Open Doors for Choice

Fati Fuchs, center, walks her son, Christopher, and daughter, Carly, home from the bus stop in Gahanna, Ohio. The family is tapping into Ohio tuition-voucher programs to pay for special education services the children need, but don't get, at their private school.

—Andrew Spear for Education Week

By Nirvi Shah

Meet voucher supporters' new fellow strategists: students with disabilities.

Creating private school vouchers for special education students—programs that are largely unchallenged in court, unlike other publicly financed tuition vouchers—can be the perfect way to clear a path for other students to get school options, according to school choice proponents.

With this approach, "there is more success legislatively," said Malcolm Glenn, a spokesman for the Washington-based American Federation for Children . The group advocates school choice, focusing its efforts on tuition vouchers...