Footing the special ed bill: Spending plan, OK’d in Senate, may lighten district’s funding load

Benjamin Grove

Monday, June 18, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Late last week, as the Senate voted to spend billions more on special education, Clark County School District Special Education Superintendent Charlene Green was holed up in her Las Vegas office with a calculator.

Green had seen an article in an education newsletter that reported one Houston program was spending about $45,000 per pupil a year to teach autistic children. Curious, Green plucked the file of one autistic preschool pupil in Clark County, and for a random comparison, began figuring what it cost local officials to educate the child: $53,000.

That's a lot of money; regular education students cost about $5,000. And the bill adds up quickly: Clark County this year has about 24,500 students designated for special education of the 231,000 students. The special ed students eat up $221 million of the district's overall $1.2 billion budget. But Clark County has a responsibility and legal obligation to give special education students a quality education, Green said.

"Do you tell a student that they can't have it because the school district can't afford it?" Green said.

Federal lawmakers in 1975 passed a landmark special education bill full of new regulations, and they promised to pay 40 percent of the cost to teach the nation's special-needs children. But Congress has never sent more than about 15 percent -- $6.3 billion this year -- to school districts nationwide.

Administrators such as Green have begged Congress to help them foot the bill. In the meantime they have "encroached" on school district general funds, funneling money away from other programs.

"I don't think I held out a lot of hope there would ever be a big change," Green said.

But lawmakers are poised to make good on their original pledge. The Senate on Thursday passed a massive education bill that included a provision authorizing annual increases in special education funding of about $2.5 billion each year, until the federal contribution hits roughly $21 billion in 2007.

That's about 40 percent of the nation's total cost, according to Senate estimates.

Advocates were cautiously optimistic.

"It's a significant chunk of change," said Nancy Reder, who tracks Congress for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

Officials at the Council for Exceptional Children, a leading special education lobby, also said they were "very encouraged" by the Senate action.

"This was the first time in 25 years that we have had this kind of attention on (the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act)," council Assistant Director Deb Ziegler said.

Observers say Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., had a lot to do changing attitudes in the Senate. Jeffords said his differences with Republicans over education -- special education, in particular -- led him to leave the party.

Jeffords "upped the ante" when it came to goading lawmakers to spend considerably more on special education, according to Thomas Parrish, a director of the California-based Center for Special Education Finance.

"I think there has clearly been a shift in thinking (in Congress)," Parrish said. Just five years ago few thought Congress would have financed special education at 40 percent, he said.

"At least now it's something that is discussed far more often," Parrish said.

Parrish and other experts noted that the Senate bill is far from final. The House version did not include sweeping special education increases. House and Senate negotiators will have to iron out a compromise.

And President Bush is not supportive of spending so much money. A memo from Bush's Office of Management and Budget called the Senate spending increases "costly and unwarranted."

Green disagrees.

Of Clark County's $221.3 million special education budget for the 2000-01 fiscal year, only $16.2 million was federal money. About $126 million came from state coffers. The special education department got the rest from the district's general fund, Green said.

Over the next 10 years the Senate bill, if it becomes law, would translate to about $430 million more for Nevada than the state would get if spending were frozen at current levels, according to congressional estimates.

"I don't see it as 'unwarranted,' " Green said. "There are children in our school district who need special education services. To provide these services you have to pay for them."