The need for autism education reform in Missouri

Bombardiers or Babies?

Hope the title was catchy enough! When I think of Bombardiers I think of black and white war stills, and, of course, Yossarian in Catch-22.

Our diligent Senators are “working pretty much around the clock,” to create a package to bring the Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace to Kansas City. With a hurting economy, no one can deny the value of an economic tax credit to create jobs and bring new industry to Missouri. But the entire situation strikes me as odd. They are working around the clock to make Kansas City look sexier than Bombardier’s first choice—a city outside of Montreal—possibly to meet a deal-breaking deadline. While we’ve been told that this tax credit will create lots of secure jobs, there are some small voices cautioning that it may cost the state more than it benefits. Senators have pushed the bill through quickly and left little time for scrutiny.

This push has left Missouri’s scholarship tax credit in its wake, and that has made me wonder about the priorities of our Senators. Tax credit to tax credit, economic development and education are both important—vital—to Missouri. We’re offering more choice for a sector of our economy that is struggling, so I’m wondering what is different about offering more choice for a sector of our education where some children and families are struggling. Why aren’t Senators working around the clock to open up education opportunities for special needs children? Why isn’t there a bipartisan rallying cry for an education tax credit like there is for the Bombardier facility?

Personally, I’d like to make sure the next generation has the chance to develop their skills and work at one of these 2100 new jobs that will be created.

Do what makes sense for students with Autism

This article had some compelling thoughts about Autism and the need for additional choices in education.

According to a study from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that the rate of autism is much higher than even the frighteningly buoyant numbers we’ve seen in recent years. In fact, as many as 1/500 children have some variation of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.

It’s unclear if this is indicative of a real increase, or just an increase in accuracy of diagnosis and awareness of autism, but one thing is certain: educating children with autism is expensive, between 2 to three times the national average per pupil. It’s no wonder then, that many public schools are not equipped to educate children with autism.

Expecting every public school to accommodate the increasing number (real or diagnosed) of children with autism is not fair to teachers, parents and most importantly the students who deserve an appropriate education. It’s not fair to the communities supporting public education to expect them to recreate the vast range of services that are already available to special needs students.

House Bill 1886 offers an equitable and intelligent solution for these problems. Private donations would create a scholarship fund to help special needs students get an education that will prepare them to be active in society and even get back into mainstream public education. A tax credit stimulates the funds available, and makes it available where it can benefit students the most.

A parent's responsibility to educate; Missouri's responsibility to make it possible

Helping Children is a Parent’s Responsibility was the title of an insensitive, ill-conceived letter in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch today. The author says,

“At a recent Senate hearing on a bill that would provide tax credits for people who contribute to scholarships for special needs children to attend private school, one parent said it wasn't fair that the family had to make adjustments to educate a special needs child. ‘We shouldn't have to move and rearrange our lives to get what's best for our kids.’

Parents do that all the time. Surely, parents take into consideration the quality of a school district before they move into a neighborhood. Would parents have the same complaint if their child had a physical illness and needed special treatment?

As parents, we often are called on to make sacrifices for our children. The means are available. Getting children the help they need is a parental responsibility, not an entitlement.”

Aside from the pure disappointment that someone who purports to understand the needs of autistic children could so callously dismiss the lengths that parents go to educate a special needs child, I was struck by the pithy and non sequiter arguments the author gave.

I am sure that parents do take into account a school district before buying a home—but how can they take into account the endless possibilities of special needs their child could be born with? Many parents simply do not have the means to live in the best school district, as illustrated by the fact that there are tens of thousands of children enrolled in the failing St. Louis Public schools—surely that is a known fact.

What’s more, the means are not available. Parents have told legislators about multiple moves to find the right school district that could help their child, or of second mortgages, cashed out college funds and 401Ks all to pay for a private school that could help their child learn. That’s to say nothing of parents who have more than one child, or children with different disabilities, careers passed up to move or care for a child, the effect moving can have on some special needs children, and the sheer costs of testing and therapies. What else would the author have them sacrifice? When parents have exercised all of their options and still cannot get an appropriate education for their special needs child, there exists an obligation to give them another choice.

There is a plethora of tax credits in Missouri that assist families with housing, daycare, college tuition—this is one way the state can respond when a need exists that many families cannot meet. It is abhorrent to say that families who are seeking a good education for their children are doing so out of a sense of entitlement. They have advocated for the scholarship tax credit precisely because it is their responsibility to help their child succeed. That deserves respect and support, not scorn.

Finally, if it is a parents' responsibility to educate their child, then parents should be given a choice.

Sen. McKenna: supporter of education

Senator Ryan McKenna, of Jefferson County, is an obvious supporter of many good causes. He encouraged schools in his district to participate in The Power of 11 Cents program, raising money for a relief fund to help deserving veterans. He was appointed to, and will be serving on, the Mississippi River Parkway Commission, which coordinates both improvements on and preservation of the Mississippi, a valuable part of his region and our state.

Senator McKenna has also been a strong supporter of educational improvement in the state, as evidenced by his cosponsoring SB 443, which forgives loans to graduates who teach in suffering and unaccredited schools throughout our state.

Given Ryan McKenna’s virtuous leadership in the senate, it is both surprising and disappointing to hear he is not in favor of SB 993, a bill that creates scholarships for children with special needs. Often these children are forgotten in their schools, don’t receive appropriate services, and their parents, already struggling with the challenges that come with raising a child that has autism, Asperger’s, or some other special need, often don’t have the money to take care of their child’s education. Though some of these children do very well in public schools, there are often those that do not.

Opponents to this bill have somehow convinced honest senators like McKenna that this bill takes money from the schools. What the bill, in fact, does is set up a scholarship fund to which people may donate money to. Under the auspices of the philanthropic donations of these citizens and administration of the funds by the state, children with special needs and their families are given a lifeline. Money is donated, and given. No money is taken from the tax base. Tax credits are given to people who give, just as they are given to those that give to other nonprofit funds. The bill is a winner all the way.

Some are also intent on saying the bill paves the way for school choice, letting kids attend private schools. This is just another tactic to derail discussion about the bills actual language, to divert media attention. And even if it were the case, Senator McKenna should have no problem with that, given he was given a good education at Saint Pius X, a private school. But then again, it does not matter, because that is not what this bill is about.

Hopefully Senator McKenna will be able see through the opponents’ murky misrepresentation of this bill and gain focus on its reality: a good cause for kids.