joether
Posts: 5195
Joined: 7/24/2005
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Mississippi I think is rated in last place for education in the nation. They have a number of major problems that create problems all on their own. Teacher's salaries are not on par with the nation. Good teachers will go where the good pay is located. Many of the schools are in dire need of repair or replaced. Teaching materials are out of date at all grade levels, not to mention their computer systems are a few years old. When one sits down and looks at the information, there are alot of problems that could be fixed with better resources.
At issue here is the ability of the school systems to handle students with disabilities. From what I've been gathering, many of them are simply overwhelmed. They have to 'house' the students to obtain federal money to help pay for everything else. But because they cant give these students the proper resources, they lag behind. Thus, we are at the problem of the OP's article and debate in the Mississippi Legislature.
We know from observation of states doing very well the kinds of things these schools need to have, even with special needs students. Funding, parental involvement, good salary and benefits for teachers, repaired and/or replaced schools. Updated teaching materials including funding for extra curricular activities.
What those in the MS Legislature wish to do is good, it needs to be done across the board, to have any real effect on the problem. The article points something out:
Opponents of the bill argued that under the bill, private schools would be able to accept students with vouchers even if they do not have staff trained to work with special education students. Many felt the certification process for the schools that would accept these students are too lax. Brown echoed what many fear about the bill—that some institutions will accept students purely for profit, not to actually help students.
There has to be more than one metrics to determine if those private schools whom have accepted those students can prove better performance over the public schools. Likewise these schools would need to prove they have the correct educators for wide range of disabilities of students. That if a private school does not show improvements, its penalized.
I don't envy the educators in that state!
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