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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas Saved Billions Cutting Special Education. Now the Bill Comes Due
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2018-08-21/texas-saved-billions-cutting-special-education-now-the-bill-comes-dueTexass 5.4 million students are returning to school amid the usual scramble for textbooks, lockers and desks. The state is also facing a huge problem of its own creation: how to find, evaluate and properly teach as many as 200,000 students wrongly denied special education or overlooked as it sought to limit spending for the nations fastest-growing school population.
And then theres the question of how Texas, under orders from the U.S. government, will pay for it all.
The federal mandate, intended to make up for a de facto cap put in place by the Texas Education Agency in 2004, may amount to the biggest single expansion of special education services ever. For more than a decade, local school districts were pressured to turn away students in need. Now that must be undone.
The federal order is both an opportunity to improve the life prospects of young people with disabilities and a challenge to the low-tax, high-growth, small-government model Texas has pursued while under Republican control. The state and local districts now confront spending increases projected to reach more than $1.5 billion a year.
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Turbineguy
(37,343 posts)they'll have to figure out how their cronies can profit from it.
VMA131Marine
(4,140 posts)I pay through the nose on property tax in Connecticut, the biggest chunk of which goes to the local school district. But I also have a daughter with Down Syndrome and she gets excellent services from her school. She has a full-time para with her during the school day, speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and a curriculum customized to her needs. Shame on Texas for shortchanging their special needs kids.
MyOwnPeace
(16,928 posts)Who wouldn't rather see that instead of spending 92 f**king million dollars to have IQ45 get a little twitch in his pants for his parade?
GAWD, these Pukelicans make me so sick - they care about EVERY child - until it is born.
Mother-F**kers, every one of them!
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)Texas is one of the few states that have a higher property tax rate than Connecticut. Of course, they have no income tax and cheaper heating & electrical costs on average in Texas, which more than offsets the property tax rate.
I'm guessing the state of Texas provides much less support per capita than does the state of Connecticut. Plus, homes on average are more expensive in Connecticut than in Texas, so the actual property tax paid is higher per home in Connecticut.
(I had a few job opportunities in the Houston area several years back, so did my research. The property tax in the Houston suburbs of The Woodlands on a new home there was about 50% higher than a home of similar price in my town of Avon)
MarcA
(2,195 posts)does not have an income tax does Not offset the property tax rate.
It would be hard to find a state with a more regressive tax structure
than Texas, especially for the level of "services" it provides. BTW,
the Texas GOP platform does, or at least did, have a provision calling
for the elimination of property taxes on a primary residence. Of course,
they don't plan on replacing it with anything. Until Texas and other
jurisdictions have tax structures based on ability to pay the mess will continue.
SWBTATTReg
(22,133 posts)families can't afford it privately. I was finally diagnosed w/ a severe hearing loss (and not mentally challenged as the docs originally thought) and I was 9 years old. Thank god for public, special schools...they brought me up to speed when they discovered my hearing loss (I was in a special school then), and they caught me up on 4 years worth of school in 1 year. I was very lucky and thank god for the dedicated teachers and special school I went to (Young School, Independence, MO).
Wish you the best w/ your daughter, and I'm so glad your daughter is getting the attention she needs. This stuff is expensive...
Take care!
dembotoz
(16,808 posts)that is a whole shitload of iep's
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)while wandering around "claiming" that they are a "family-values" party
iluvtennis
(19,863 posts)Scalded Nun
(1,236 posts)Now they are declaring the system is broken!
Not one single news outlet is asking the salient question as to who broke it. We all know they can't fix it. This state needs to rid itself of the leadership, but that won't happen. Too many Texans, like too many Americans, would rather see the educational. social and health care systems trashed rather than let a Democrat run anything.
This state has been rotting since the Bush 90s (Bush, Perry and now Abbott). It has reflected particularly badly in our social, health and educational networks all while leadership and their friends have stolen every penny they could. Until Texas citizens wake up this will not change.
Ted Cruz, whose only accomplishments in the Senate have been shutting down the government and reading Dr. Seuss, is another prime example of GOP corruption. If Beto can defeat him in November there might be hope for rest of state and local government in the future.
I have hope.