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some Bay Area
Variety
Texas
Taxpayers and the TEA: The Fleecing of Special Education
submitted by Renee Bennet
If you are a taxpayer, this letter is directed to you.
True, it may not directly apply to many of you, but it is very much about
you. You see, as a taxpayer, whose money supports the public education
system in Texas, you are an accomplice to a crime you didn’t even know was
being committed: the fleecing of special education. Perhaps that may not be
a crime that is written in any law book, but still very much a crime of
indecency indeed...
And in so many respects, that is what is happening to Special Education in
Texas.
To start with, the schools do not even have the amount of money they need
for educating students with disabilities in the first place, (thanks to our
lawmakers), and to make matters worse, and what is so totally bizarre to me,
is that they spend money they do have and could be using to educate those
very students, on attorney fee’s against the parents of those very students!
So make no mistake, the cost to taxpayers in footing the bill for those
attorney fees is being fleeced - covered up. Not so much in that they are
trying to hide it, but in that no one seems to know they should be looking
for it! And they should! You should! It's time for a Texas-sized shearing of
the facts! What you don’t know, is not only hurting your wallet, but it’s
hurting the chances of success for thousands of students with disabilities.
In so many instances, not only is the system defrauding parents of their
childs right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education, (FAPE); but YOU are
paying them to do it.
How?
By a very unequal system of checks and balances. The very agency charged
with overseeing the school district in providing that FAPE for students
receiving special education services, is the one that oversees the complaint
process. What do parents do when they don’t agree with what the school has
provided for their child? Their end of the line defense is to file for
Mediation or Due Process, whereby the Hearing Officer is paid by the system
the parent is in disagreement with. How unbiased does that sound to you?
That the majority of parents do not win in Due Process, should not leave you
to assume that they were wrong or that their complaint was “frivolous” and
without merit. What it should leave you to assume, is that the parent ran
out of money before the school did, and that the very process was stacked
against the parent. (Not to mention that for every one parent who managed to
beg, borrow, or steal the money for Due Process, - there are about 10 who
couldn’t, and have no choice but to stick with the status quo).
If you went to court for a very worthy reason, would you want the Judge over
your case brainwashed with the mantra that “if you rule in favor of this
parent, think of the precedence you would set in having to award this to ALL
parents who think their child deserves better”???. I would think not. But
that is a very real issue whether you believe it to be true or not.
And the cost of that process? Footed by you the taxpayer.
Attorneys hired by the School Districts defend the school district at a high
cost in most instances. Don’t believe me? Look it up! Ask your local school
district board of trustee's for invoices having to do with attorney fees
paid to them related to special education.
When talk of laws or regulations limiting those funds the schools can spend
on a reasonable defense is mentioned, schools cry, “We have a right to fully
defend ourselves!” (The irony in that is that if they were providing FAPE,
they wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place, but no one gets that
point either. Trust me, parents of children with disabilities have better
things to do with their time and money than to file frivolous law suits.)
Yes, I agree, schools do have a right to defend themselves from the 1% of
cases filed that have no merit. But for the other 99% of cases filed, at
what cost to you the taxpayer does the school have the right to fleece???
Especially in light of the fact that if anyone cared to research it, (please
do) the cost of what the parent asked for in the first place, would be
probably 1/10th the cost of litigating the issue through Due Process and
Appeals and Circuit Courts and etc.
So, as a taxpayer, wouldn’t you want to know if your school could have just
paid maybe $10,000 in additional training for a special education teacher,
to not only benefit that student, but other students, before they fleeced
you for a $100,000.00 attorney fee for that school to argue in an ARD, at
Mediation, or through Due Process that the special education teacher didn’t
need more training? Why, (- and I know I’m just a mom of a child with a
disability with no real merit or credentials), - that would leave about
$90,000 toward that new stadium for your typical child (who has all the
services, teacher training, tutoring, and gifted-talent programs they need)
- to play football in!
And if you think this doesn’t apply to you even despite the fact that your
tax dollars are being used for this, then think about your adult child’s
cost as a taxpayer one day. In having to pay for the lifelong care of their
classmate whom they perhaps never paid attention to in school, who was in a
classroom in the far corner of the building, not being taught as well as
they could have been. With autism alone, those numbers are 1 in 150. Where
are all those students going to go when they “age out” at 21 and have no
skills for independence when they very well could have? Because again, where
the school could have spent 10,000 extra dollars for teacher training, they
instead chose to spend $100,000.00 in saying and defending that no, they
didn’t need additional teacher training. Your adult children’s tax dollars
will be building, staffing, and maintaining, for a lifetime, those
facilities. All because as a society, taxpayers chose not to notice, care
about, research, or stop, - the fleecing of special education in Texas.
All because as parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and
lawmakers, we did not collectively agree that “No Child Left Behind” – truly
means NO CHILD left behind.
As long as the public school systems know they can get away with inadequate
and inappropriate programs for students receiving special education services
in Texas, there will be taxpayers being “fleeced” by footing the bill for
those very schools to hire attorneys at any cost, to “defend” themselves
against any type of due process.
And they can do that, pay whatever it takes in attorney fees, because again,
it’s not their money they are spending, - it’s your money!
So whenever a school bond issue comes up, and you as a taxpayer are asked to
give more money, ask the school board how much was spent in one year on
attorney fee’s to defend against parents who have children with
disabilities. Ask what the cost was of what the “frivolous” request was from
the parent; and for the love of Texas, ask what they instead chose to spend
in attorney fees to deny that request.
And I know that there are good school districts out there with some very
good programs, so if this doesn’t apply to you, don’t worry! But if it does,
- then be worried. Be very worried….
Reporters….dare to confront this issue with the bravery of a lone parent
attending an ARD meeting that is stacked 10 to 1, – and pursue at any cost
publishing a series called “The Fleecing of Special Education in Texas.”
Look into what schools pay in attorney fees, look into the nature of the
complaint, look at the benefit of what that parent is requesting in not only
benefiting their child, but other children! Do it for the parents who need
to file, but can't because they know that they will never be able to buy
their verdict as the schools can.
It is time to shear the sheep of its pretty, fluffy, abundant wool, and
expose the bare naked truth about the fleecing of special education, and
your tax dollars, in Texas.
Written by Michelle M. Guppy, MichelleMGuppy@...
….. for Brandon.
To parents…
….as the footsteps of the next Legislative session in Texas fast approaches,
I encourage you to bring the issues that this letter represents to the
attention of your legislators! If not for your child, then please do it for
mine!
Michelle M. Guppy
Autism is a very silent world; but the potential in that world speaks
volumes....
Texas Autism Advocacy: www.TexasAutismAdvocacy.org
"There are some aspects of a person's life that we have no right to
compromise. We cannot negotiate the size of an institution. No one should
live in one. We cannot debate who should get an inclusive education.
Everyone should. We cannot determine who does and who does not get the right
to make their own choices and forge their own futures. All must."
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