Miss-Delectable
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The Price Tag for Schools for the Deaf - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com
Leaving aside the heated political and cultural arguments surrounding the deaf community, the cost of maintaining separate schools for deaf children is exorbitantly expensive, especially considering the poor academic outcomes for deaf children.
California is a case in point. California has two schools for the deaf, in Fremont and Riverside, costing $35 million per school (not including capital costs). Combined, they educate close to 800 students a year. This puts the per-pupil cost at more than $87,000 a year — at the expense of other students statewide, including the more than 12,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing students who do not attend the California schools for the deaf.
Unfortunately, even with all of these concentrated resources, the academic outcomes for deaf students enrolled at these separate schools are dismal. According to the California Department of Education 2010 STAR testing results, 0 percent of third-graders were proficient in English language arts at the Riverside school, and 72 percent were far below basic proficiency. By 11th grade, 90 percent of the students at the Riverside school are far below basic proficiency in English language arts. Over all, the state of California has bleak results for deaf children, with only 8 percent statewide scoring proficient in English language arts.
A much more sustainable financial model, especially given huge state budget shortfalls, would be to have the special needs funding follow the child to the instructional model of his or her parents’ choice. For example, in Florida, the McKay scholarships provide private school funding to assist 21,000 students with special needs. The most expensive scholarship for the highest-need student is around $20,000, which is far less than the average cost to maintain separate schools in other states.
On the nation’s report card, the National Assessment for Education Progress, Florida has seen a large improvement in fourth-grade reading scores for students with disabilities — moving from 24 percent at basic proficiency or above in 1998 to 45 percent in 2009.
These special needs scholarship programs are growing around the country, and they have the added benefit of bypassing the polarizing political debate between how best to educate deaf students in separate or mainstream environments by making state financing neutral and letting parents decide the best instructional approach for their deaf child.
Leaving aside the heated political and cultural arguments surrounding the deaf community, the cost of maintaining separate schools for deaf children is exorbitantly expensive, especially considering the poor academic outcomes for deaf children.
California is a case in point. California has two schools for the deaf, in Fremont and Riverside, costing $35 million per school (not including capital costs). Combined, they educate close to 800 students a year. This puts the per-pupil cost at more than $87,000 a year — at the expense of other students statewide, including the more than 12,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing students who do not attend the California schools for the deaf.
Unfortunately, even with all of these concentrated resources, the academic outcomes for deaf students enrolled at these separate schools are dismal. According to the California Department of Education 2010 STAR testing results, 0 percent of third-graders were proficient in English language arts at the Riverside school, and 72 percent were far below basic proficiency. By 11th grade, 90 percent of the students at the Riverside school are far below basic proficiency in English language arts. Over all, the state of California has bleak results for deaf children, with only 8 percent statewide scoring proficient in English language arts.
A much more sustainable financial model, especially given huge state budget shortfalls, would be to have the special needs funding follow the child to the instructional model of his or her parents’ choice. For example, in Florida, the McKay scholarships provide private school funding to assist 21,000 students with special needs. The most expensive scholarship for the highest-need student is around $20,000, which is far less than the average cost to maintain separate schools in other states.
On the nation’s report card, the National Assessment for Education Progress, Florida has seen a large improvement in fourth-grade reading scores for students with disabilities — moving from 24 percent at basic proficiency or above in 1998 to 45 percent in 2009.
These special needs scholarship programs are growing around the country, and they have the added benefit of bypassing the polarizing political debate between how best to educate deaf students in separate or mainstream environments by making state financing neutral and letting parents decide the best instructional approach for their deaf child.
