When is School Choice Not Really a Choice? Insights from the National Association of State Directors of Special Education

This morning I attended a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress called "What's at Stake for Americans with Disabilities in the Trump Era." Advocates, families, and people with disabilities covered a wide range of issues, including Medicaid, Social Security, civil rights, and education. You can watch the hour-long event here.

In the next few days, I'll report on some of the health topics that were discussed, but I want to start with the topic of vouchers and special education, which was addressed very well by Valerie Williams, director of government relations for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

"What's come up a lot lately is the word 'voucher.' Don't get hung up on the word voucher," she said. "When someone talks to you about vouchers, education savings accounts, or scholarships, it's all the same thing. The problem is not the voucher, but the effort to privatize the public school system. Anything that will allow public tax dollars to be diverted to a private school that your child may not be able to attend, that's problematic. Students may be turned away based on disability, sexual orientation, past disciplinary records, or religion."

She offered a realistic scenario of a family with a disabled child that gets a $10,000 to send their child to the school of their choice. First, the parents must sign away their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which include required services, legal protections, and reporting on outcomes. A few things can happen:

• The school may be a good fit for the child, but the cost may be $20,000, only half of which is covered by the voucher. Or the voucher may not cover the costs of books, uniforms, or transportation, which can be thousands of dollars. "So when you're discussing a middle- or low-income family, they can't make that leap, which means it's not accessible to them, and they honestly don't have a choice."
• The school may tell them in the first few months that they can't offer the specialized services or equipment that their child needs, in which case the family will have to forego those needs or return to the public system, which is mandated to provide those services.

"If you're in a rural area," Williams explained, "the problem is even bigger. Because funds are diverted outside the public school system, and the only school is the public school, so you literally have no other option, and they have less money to work with."

In closing, Williams said, "We need to make decisions as taxpayers and legislators that will benefit the masses, not a few students. I'm concerned that children and adults with disabilities are going to be sicker, less independent, and not educated to the fullest extent they could be, based on some of the ideas that are floating around right now."

She encouraged the attendees to contact their state and federal elected officials and explain not just what they're against, but also how existing programs benefit them and their families.

Vouchers and Special Education: A Primer

Thanks to Education Week for this graphic illustration of how special education money gets to local schools. As Secretary Betsy DeVos shifts the focus of the public education conversation toward school choice and vouchers, it's important to understand how the current system works. There are a bunch of articles and analyses about this, but here's what I think is important to know.

1. Special education is already underfunded. When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed in 1975, Congress authorized funding for special education up to 40 percent of average per-pupil spending in public schools. But the current federal contribution is just about 16 percent. Read more details about this at EdCentral from the New America.

Rising spending for special education over the past 15 years is mostly the result of more children being identified as "disabled," not a disproportionate increase in the cost of special education services.

2. Investing in private schools takes resources away from public schools. Read this account by Bonnie Kandel, a parent in Indiana, "Civil Rights Crisis Unfolding: Most Needy Children in America at Risk." She's concerned about the impact that voucher systems and Education Savings Accounts would have on her son, who has autism is attending first grade in a public school (after being asked to leave two private preschools). "Options for students with special needs, like my son, are worse than abysmal. Voucher programs are programs where schools choose the child. He is expensive to educate. Not only does he need special interventions that cost money directly, but he also needs teachers with experience and higher education specializing in autism." Kandel points out that Indiana public schools have already lost $485 million because of the push for "school choice." And she's worried about what will happen with more cuts in more states.

3. Students in private schools often forfeit protections and rights. Voucher programs are risky for families because students who attend private schools aren't guaranteed the same rights and protections as students in public schools are. Many states require parents to sign away some or all of their protections under IDEA, Section 504, and the Americans with Disabilities Act to participate in voucher programs. If a private school determines that a student needs support services like occupational or speech therapy, parents often have to cover those services when they exceed the value of the voucher. And if parents are not satisfied with the education at a private school, they have no legal recourse -- their only choice may be to remove their child and find a new school.

4. Voucher programs have not been shown to improve academic performance -- and have actually worsened academic outcomes in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and other states. As Kevin Carey reports in The New York Times, the latest studies are "very unusual." He writes: "When people try to improve education, sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail. The successes usually register as modest improvements, while the failures generally have no effect at all. It’s rare to see efforts to improve test scores having the opposite result. Martin West, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, calls the negative effects in Louisiana 'as large as any I’ve seen in the literature' — not just compared with other voucher studies, but in the history of American education research." Read Carey's column, "Dismal Results from Vouchers Surprise Researchers as DeVos Era Begins."

Learn more from these recent reports from the Center for American Progress:

• "Betsy DeVos's Threat to Children with Disabilities," Feb. 2, 2017
• "Vouchers Are Not a Viable Solution for Vast Swaths of America," March 3, 2017
• "Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities: Negotiating Common Ground for District and Charter School Collaboration, Jan. 31, 2017

Education Secretary Nominee on Special Education Rights (with full video)

Yesterday, we were introduced to Betsy DeVos, President-elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education. In her hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, she seemed unaware that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is 1) a federal law and that 2) it protects the rights of all students in schools that accept federal funding. When asked by Senator Tim Kaine if all K-12 schools should be required to meet the requirements of the IDEA, she responded, "I think that is a matter better left to the states."

When Senator Maggie Hassan, who has a son with special needs, expressed concern that Ms. DeVos seemed unfamiliar with the federal legislation passed in 1990, Ms. DeVos said she'd be "sensitive" to the needs of special needs students. Senator Hassan replied: "With all due respect, it is not about sensitivity, although that helps. It’s about being willing to enforce the law to make sure that my child and every child has the same access to public education, high quality public education. And the reality is, the way the voucher systems that you supported work don’t always come out that way." 

Watch the full hearing.

Highlights (lowlights):

Sen. Kaine: Let me move to my next question. Should all K-12 schools receiving governmental funding be required to meet the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
Ms. DeVos: I think they already are.
Sen. Kaine: But I’m asking you a should question. Whether they are or not we’ll get into that later. Should all schools that receive taxpayer funding be required to meet the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
Ms. DeVos: I think that is a matter better left to the states.
Sen. Kaine: So some states might be good to students with disabilities, other state might not be so good, and then what? People can move around the country if they don’t like how their kids are being treated?
Ms. DeVos: I think that is an issue best left to the states.
Sen. Kaine: What about the federal requirement? It’s a federal law – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Let’s limit it to federal funding. If schools receive federal funding, should they be required to follow federal law? Whether they’re public, public charter, or private?
Ms. DeVos: As the Senator referred to – the Florida program, there are many parents who are happy with the program there.
Sen. Kaine: Let me say this, I think all schools that receive federal funding, public charter, or public, should be required to follow the individuals with disabilities and education act. Do you agree with me?
Ms. DeVos: I think that is worth a discussion.
Sen. Kaine: So you cannot agree with me. And finally, should all K-12 schools receiving government funding be required to report the same information in instances of harassment and bullying? If they receive federal funding.
Ms. DeVos: I think that federal funding certainly comes with strings attached.
Sen. Kaine: I think all such schools should be required to report, equally, information about discipline, harassment, and bullying. Do you agree with me or not?
Ms. DeVos: I would look forward to reviewing that provision.
Sen. Kaine: If it was a court I would say let the judges direct the witness to answer the question. It’s not a court, you’re not under oath, not under subpoena, but you are trying to win my vote.


Sen. Hassan: The other thing I just wanted to circle back to – I want to go back to the individuals with disabilities and education act. That’s a federal civil rights law. So do you stand by your statement a few minutes ago that it should be up to the states whether to follow it?
Ms. DeVos: Federal law must be followed where federal dollars are in play.
Sen. Hassan: So were you unaware when i just asked you about the idea that it is a federal law?Ms. DeVos: I may have confused it.
Sen. Hassan: It guarantees absolutely basic protections to students with disabilities to ensure they are given a high-quality education with their peers. One reason it is difficult to have this hearing and feel that we fully understand your perspective is because we do know that children with disabilities – at least in some of the voucher programs that you have supported – have gone with a voucher to their school because of their disability, they have to leave the school, the school keeps the money, and they go back to public schools, that now have even less resources for them. Many of us see this as the potential for turning our public schools into warehouses for the most challenging kids with disabilities, or the kids whose parents cannot afford to make up the difference between the voucher and the cost of private school tuition. I would urge you to become familiar, should you be nominated, with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. And I do have to say I’m concerned that you seem so unfamiliar with it, and that you seem to support vouchers schools that have not honored, that have made students sign away their rights to make sure that that the law is enforced. That is very troubling to me.
Ms. DeVos: Senator I assure you, if confirmed, I will be very sensitive to the needs of special needs students and the policies surrounding that.
Sen. Hassan: With all due respect, it is not about sensitivity, although that helps. It’s about being willing to enforce the law to make sure that my child and every child has the same access to public education, high quality public education. And the reality is, the way the voucher systems that you supported work don’t always come out that way. And that’s why it is something we need to continue to explore.

Disability Policy and the Election: A Wrap-Up

Still trying to decide who to vote for? Want to easily share a summary of the top issues to people with disabilities? Review this blog's most popular posts this election season:

Easter Seals on Campaign Issues: Exclusive Interview. The head government relations official at Easter Seals on the record of the Obama Administration, health care reform, special education, and key differences between the candidates' positions.

Thank You, Ann Coulter! A response to Coulter's offensive use of the "r-word."

Ayn Rand and Disabilities: Part 1 and Part 2. Why author Ayn Rand is relevant to this year's election, and her shocking disdain for people with disabilities.

Advocates Agree: Health Care Law is Good for People With Disabilities

Will Romney Cut Funds for Autism Program He Supported in Massachusetts?

Ryan Budget: "Dangerous to People with Disabilities"

Romney's Voucher Plan: "Disaster for Special Education Students" and Vouchers: What Would They Mean for Special Education?

How Election 2012 Will Affect Students with Learning Disabillities

If you have a child with a learning disability, make your voice heard on Election Day. From the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), here is a balanced look at policy issues that impact students with learning disabilities. Their analysis covers:

• Charter schools
• School vouchers
• College funding and affordability
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act
• Standardized Testing
• Universal preschool and early literacy screening

NCLD does a great job by providing a brief summary of each of these issues and offering a more detailed side-by-side analysis that includes their own position. Please share this with anyone you know who has a child with a learning disability of any type.

Do 6.5 Million Votes Matter?

In an Oct. 11 op-ed titled "Mitt Romney: Do 6.5 Million Votes Matter?" in the examiner.com, Tina Burgess writes about the 6.5 million children who are served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the federal law that oversees special education.

Burgess points out that until federal legislation was passed in 1975, only one of five children with special needs received special education services. In 1990, that original legislation -- the Education for All Handicapped Children Act -- was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. And under several presidents, including President Bush, the law has been revised to provide additional rights to children and parents and to realign it with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities sent a questionnaire to President Obama and Governor Romney. Only the president responded. Read the questions and answers here.

"Disastrous Educational Agenda"? Voucher Lessons from Milwaukee

One way I collect content for my blog is through Google Alerts for the policy issues that affect people with disabilities. Alerts for Medicaid, Medicare, and health care reform would overwhelm my inbox, and I want to be specifically focused on disabilities -- so I search for the candidates names connected with terms like special education, disability, and disabilities. I've been noticing a distinct trend that my Google Alerts are increasingly critical of the Romney-Ryan agenda in terms of their impact on people with disabilities.

While many (most) in the disability community recognize that more needs to be done to give all citizens equal opportunities, including health care, education, training, and other areas, there is real concern about what a Romney presidency would mean for people with disabilities.

As an example, read award-winning journalist Barbara Miner's latest op-ed, "Romney's Disastrous Educational Agenda: Lessons from Milwaukee" in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Based on her reporting experience in Milwaukee, she writes that "in essence, vouchers are a mechanism to funnel public dollars into private schools. They are an abandonment of both public education and our country's democratic ideals."

In the Milwaukee voucher program, once held up as a national model, only 17.5 percent of students remained in voucher schools after five years, compared with a rate of 43.5 percent for public schools. States tests in math were significantly lower in private schools; reading was about equal.

Miner writes, "Every state constitution in the country enshrines the right to a free and public education for all children—an honor that is not bestowed on other requisites for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, whether housing or employment or healthcare.

"In the current debates on vouchers, there is strikingly little discussion of the relationship between democratic values, civic responsibility, and public education. Instead, education is treated as a mere commodity, with parents and children reduced to mere consumers."

Important to families whose children require special education, in Milwaukee the percentage of special education students in private voucher schools is just less than 2 percent, while it's about 20 percent in public schools. If you are a parent of a child with special needs and think vouchers are the way to go, imagine if you lived in Milwaukee. Do you really think schools with just 2 percent of their students in special ed are investing in the training, staffing, and specialized services that our students require?
Read Barbara's blog, View from the Heartland.

Romney's Voucher Plan: "Disaster for Special Education Students"

Charles Fox, an attorney and parent who writes the excellent Special Education Law blog, provides one of the clearest arguments against Governor Romney's plan to make special education a voucher program. In a post titled "Romney's Educational Vouchers a Disaster for Special Education Students," Fox writes that while choice sounds good in theory, we can't trust the profit-driven market to ensure protections for students with disabilities.

"Charter schools and private schools operate very differently and have different philosophies," he says. "As public schools, charter schools are bound by all of the federal laws pertaining to special education.  It is entirely unclear under this voucher system how many special education students will be accepted to either charter or private schools and what legal protections will follow them. Given Mr. Romney’s hands-off philosophy and market-oriented approach, the likely answer is few if any protections, or as he states derisively, 'regulations' would apply to protect students who opt to use a voucher.

"Congress is authorized to fund up to 40 percent of the cost to educate special education students, bu tin reality, the amount Congress contributes is approximately 16 percent, or $1,950, of the average expenditure per student.The cost to educate a special education student tends to be higher than a regular education student, so profit-maximizing driven private schools will have no incentive to take special education students. The whole premise of better outcomes through competition is very much an illusion for these students."

Some states have experimented with vouchers already -- most notably, Florida under then-Governor Jeb Bush. As Fox explains, "In the McKay Scholarship Program, special education students are given vouchers equal to the lesser amount of the cost of the child’s education in his home school or the tuition charged by the private school he is attending....The amount of vouchers given to these students in 2011-12 ranged from $4,280 up to $18,529; the average voucher was for $6,849." In many areas, this amount would not begin to pay for specialized education for children with disabilities.

And then there's this: "An investigative report by the Miami New Times revealed a 'cottage industry' rife with 'fraud and chaos.' The award-winning author of the report wrote the McKay program was 'like a perverse science experiment, using disabled school kids as lab rats.'" Fraud was reported in 25 of 38 schools. "What came out of these reports and what is particularly troubling is the realization that there is no requirement for McKay schools to be accredited. And because these schools are private, the Department of Education can neither monitor curriculum nor prohibit use of corporal punishment. And finally, because these schools are private, there is no system of assessments to overall gauge the progress of their students."

Many charter schools cater to students with mild disabilities. The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) has reported that students who have more significant disabilities are excluded from charter schools through a process of “selectivity, controlled outreach, counseling out, and other push-out practices.” 

Fox asks, "So what happens to the more profoundly disabled special education students or those that cannot or choose to not take the voucher if the special needs students with more mild disabilities (and their dollars) are siphoned out to charter or private schools? Will the school districts be left with the resources to educate these students? Are there really other options for these students?  The clear answer is 'no.' There will be few other options, and the prospect for special education students left in the public schools is dismal at best.

Fox concludes, "Sorry, Mr. Romney, but your education policy seems to be poorly thought out. We cannot put our children at risk and subject them to the tender mercies of the market place. Special education students need more, not less, from the education system....Let’s make the current education system stronger and more accountable. We cannot take a leap of faith that the market will provide for students with special needs when we know the economics, the current data, and common sense all strongly prove otherwise."

Paul Ryan's Vision for the U.S. Education System

Writing in The Atlantic, Jordan Weissmann summarizes Rep. Paul Ryan's plan for education in two words -- "cut" and "privatize." Read "How Would Paul Ryan's Vision Change the U.S. Education System?"

Ryan's budget proposal calls for massive cuts in non-discretionary funding, but does not include specific amount for education or other programs. Current Education Secretary Arne Duncan has estimated that the Ryan budget may cut $2.2 billion from special education funding that goes to the states (currently at $11.6 billion) and $2.7 billion from the $14.5 billion that poor school districts get in Title I funds.

"The House budget report includes a few other interesting details about funding for K-12 and higher education," Weissmann reports. "It suggests killing the interest subsidies on some student loans and curtailing the income-based repayment program for college debt. It would also streamline some of the 82 programs that deal with teacher quality."

"Like most of the modern GOP, [Romney and Ryan are] two men who believe the government needs to move aside and let the private sector handle things. Including teaching."

Vouchers: What Would They Mean for Special Education?

Last night, Education Week sponsored a debate at Teachers College at Columbia University on education between education advisers for President Obama and Governor Romney. I'll post the video and transcript when it's available soon. If you care about education, especially special education and Title I funding for families in poverty, I strongly encourage you to watch the debate. I guarantee it will give you more substantive information on education policy than you'll get in tonight's presidential debate.

In the debate, much time was devoted to the candidates' differing strategies to improve education and choice for students and parents. Romney has advocated turning Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) into a voucher program. Next to health care reform and Medicaid, this may be the most important issue in this election for people with disabilities. The Romney camp argues that vouchers will give families more choice and reward good schools; the Obama camp agrees with the concept of choice, but are concerned about removing the protections that the federal law currently provide.

As background, I recommend these two articles by Nirvi Shah, who does a great job reporting on special education issues for Education Week. Keep up on this and other special ed issues by following her "On Special Education" blog.

Read "Details of Romney's School Choice Plan Emerge," May 24, 2012. Excerpt:

"Many advocacy groups warn parents against using vouchers for students with disabilities because, in doing so, they give up their rights outlined in federal education and disability laws. And they may not know that.

" 'We have to remember that a family with a child who has a disability never really has the same choice as others. By virtue of having a disability that qualifies them for an Individualized Education Program, a private school for instance, would never guarantee via a voucher that they would provide a free appropriate public education and the services outlined in the IEP,' said Laura Kaloi of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

"In addition, the Council for Exceptional Children's Lindsay Jones says that it's the wrong time to consider siphoning special education funding from public schools.

" 'This proposal's potential to take money out of our public school system and place it in the hands of private business is also especially concerning at this point in time,' Jones said. 'School districts around the nation have seen deep cuts in funding over the last few years as our nation confronts a recession, increased needs, and declining revenues. These cuts have impacted districts' ability to provide services to children in need—further cuts won't help.' "

Read "Would Romney Voucher Plan Equalize Special Ed. Opportunities?" June 8, 2012.

Shah cites an article from the Atlantic by a parent and attorney who says "there's already a system of vouchers built in: Schools that believe they can't provide the right educational services and environment a student needs can choose to send that student to a private school, at the public school's expense. It's called private placement."

Shah reports, the author "goes on to say that for Romney's plan to work, state and local special education dollars would also have to become portable, something I can't imagine every state and school board agreeing to. Many special education advocates oppose vouchers, however, because unlike private placements, students lose their protections under federal law—the very law that would be paying for their private schooling under Romney's proposal—IDEA."

Easter Seals on Campaign Issues: Exclusive Interview

I'd like to thank Katherine (Katy) Beh Neas, senior vice president for government relations at Easter Seals, for taking the time to talk with me about critical disability issues as we approach the 2012 presidential election. Katy has been focused on these issues since the late 1980s, when she worked in the Senate on legislation including the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In her current role, she monitors and analyzes federal legislation and regulations affecting children with disabilities and their families, particularly in the areas of autism, early intervention, early childhood education, special education and budget and appropriations.

We discussed the record of the Obama Administration, health care reform, special education, and key differences between the candidates' positions.

Q: When you consider the issues that are important to people with disabilities, how would you assess the commitment and the actions of the Obama Administration? What has been done well, and what requires more attention?

A: First, what's been done well: Easter Seals launched a major initiative in 2011 – Make the First Five Count – to reduce the number of young children who enter kindergarten with a disability or developmental delay that hasn’t been identified or addressed. Our research shows that approximately 1 million kids fall into this category. An element of the MFFC campaign is advocacy to increase funding for the federal early intervention program, Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. President Obama’s budgets have called for increases in Part C over the past two years. We are very pleased with his leadership in this area. In addition, the President has championed health care for people with disabilities in the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare.

What needs more attention? Easter Seals was disappointed that the Administration is not working on implementation of the CLASS Act – the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act – this policy was adopted as part of the Affordable Care Act and would establish a voluntary long-term care assistance policy.

Q: The Easter Seals strongly supported the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the major portions of the Affordable Care Act. How could the ACA be strengthened to meet the needs of people with disabilities. What are the biggest benefits?

A: While there are many benefits within the ACA, some of the insurance market reforms are truly transformational. The elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions for kids and extending coverage to dependent children are huge first steps. Families with kids with disabilities no longer have to worry about whether their child will be dropped from coverage because of a chronic condition or disability. We are also working to shape how the rehabilitation and habilitation benefits are designed so that people with disabilities of all ages can get the appropriate habilitation services that can help a child gain a skill he or she never had or help an adult slow down the regression of a disability. The bulk of the ACA comes online in 2014. Our hope is that the law stands and that states will continue to work to meet this important deadline.

Q: Governor Romney has vowed to repeal the ACA on his first day in office, if he's elected. Would that have any immediate impact on families living with disabilities?

A: Prior to the enactment of the ACA, most people with disabilities were unable to buy health insurance on their own. Pre-existing condition exclusions made it virtually impossible for children or adults with disabilities to get coverage outside of an employer provided plan or outside of a government program like Medicaid. For many, Medicaid eligibility requires the individual to have an extremely low income. The ACA changed all of that, and today, no child with a disability can be dropped from coverage because of a pre-existing condition. For this reason alone, Easter Seals opposes repeal of the ACA.

Q: You've helped lead the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities since its founding. Has health care reform been a contentious issue among the 50 organizations that are part of that consortium? What principles do they agree on, and where has there been debate?

A: I’ve been a member of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities for 21 years, and chair its Education Task Force. My colleagues at Easter Seals have been very involved in the CCD Health, Long Term Services Supports, Employment and Training and other Task Forces. This coalition has a solid track record of working across disparate groups to find areas of agreement. I believe that there was very strong support for health reform among the majority of groups. I have attached a copy of the CCD principles on health reform as well as Easter Seals’ principles.

Q: In all the talk about health care reform and Medicaid, the topic of education seems to be a much lower priority. Yet for students with disabilities, services funded by the Individuals with Disabilities Act are a daily need. What do you think of the Romney-Ryan proposal to privatize special education funding?

A: Funding for special education services is always a hot topic. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a civil rights law that requires states to provide a free, appropriate public education to each child with a disability regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. Congress also provides billions of dollars each year to states to help them meet their obligation. The law currently provides the rights to a child to have his or her special education needs met at no cost to his or her family. Easter Seals believes that funding for quality early education and care services is the best way to decrease special education funding. We know that when kids get their special needs addressed before they enter kindergarten, they need less special education services. Our goal should be to focus on what works – to ensure that every child has a chance to succeed and with that success comes a more productive and independent life.

Q: For my readers who are studying the records and platforms of the presidential candidates, what would you say are the biggest differences between the candidates' philosophies and policies as they affect disability issues?

A: The treatment of Medicaid is among the biggest difference between President Obama and Governor Romney. President Obama is working to protect access to appropriate services to children with disabilities and long term services to adults with disabilities that are currently available under the Medicaid program. Governor Romney’s platform proposes to alter the Medicaid program from one that guarantees specific services to one that is a block grant to states that eliminates any guarantees.

Q: Is there any other information you think families should have as they prepare to vote this year?

A: This election is really important. Elected officials at all levels of government will make decisions that affect the lives of children and adults with disabilities and their families. I would urge all of your readers to educate themselves about the positions of the candidates and then vote. Elected officials need to know how their priorities either support or hinder the quality of life of children and adults with disabilities. It’s up to all of us to educate them.

If you want to learn more about these issues, Katy recommends "Principles for Health Care Reform from a Disability Perspective," prepared for the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, and the Easter Seals' principles for health care reform.

Visit the Easter Seals website, learn about the Make the First Five Count initiative, or read Katy's bio.

Side by Side: A Look at the Issues by The Arc

Founded in 1950, when few programs were available for people with intellectual disabilities, The Arc is the largest national community-based organization advocating for and serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, the Arc is legally prohibited from taking positions in support of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. But the organization has created one of the best analyses of the Democratic and Republican Party platforms on its priority issues.

Download the document here.

I encourage you to review this entire eight-page document for yourself, but here are a few of my observations.

1. Education
President Obama has expressed his support for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and has stated that it would be more effective if fully funded.

The Republican platform supports the IDEA's "goal of minimizing the separation of children with disabilities from their peers," but it does not support the program itself. In addition, I can tell you firsthand that the next sentence reveals a big disconnect from the reality of people with disabilities: "We urge preventive efforts in early childhood, especially assistance in gaining pre-reading skills, to help many students move beyond the need for IDEA’s protections." Yes, families should have access to early intervention (but Romney-Paul aren't offering additional funding for that) -- but even the best programs will not eliminate the needs for long-term support.

The Republican platform says most IDEA money should be provided to families in the form of vouchers. Read my recent post on this topic.

2. Civil Rights
No candidate is going to come out against civil rights. There are really no clear differences between the platforms, except the Republican platform specifically asserts "the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed."

3. Medicaid
The Republican platform encourages an overhaul of the Medicaid program, saying "It is simply too big and too flawed to be managed in its current condition from Washington." It encourages shifting power to the states: "For the aged and disabled under Medicaid, for whom monthly costs can be extremely high, states would have flexibility to improve the quality of care." What's not stated is that they would also have the flexibility to not improve the quality of care, and the option to reduce care.

The Democratic platform: "The President and the Democratic Party will fiercely oppose the harsh cuts in Medicaid that would inevitably lead to no or significantly less health care for millions of Americans with disabilities, workers with disabilities, and families raising children with autism, Down Syndrome, and other serious disabilities."

Read The Arc's position on Medicaid cuts.

4. Medicare
The Republican platform calls for an overhaul of Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, with a focus on personal responsibility and free market competition.

The Democratic platform: "Nearly 50 million older Americans and Americans with disabilities rely on Medicare each year, and the new health care law makes Medicare stronger by adding new benefits, fighting fraud, and improving care for patients. And, over 10 years, the law will save the average Medicare beneficiary $4,200."

Vouchers for Special Education? The Threat to Students

Throughout this campaign, Governor Romney has been largely silent on one of the issues that is most important to families with children with special needs -- education. Romney and Ryan have a consistent theme of downsizing government and reducing government control in almost every area, including education. While they are not saying specifically how that would affect federal programs that ensure that children with special needs receive an appropriate education, there have been suggestions that have families worried.

As a parent of a third-grader with special needs, I've learned that getting the services she's entitled to is very hard. It requires research, professional advice, and the support of parents who have been through the same challenges. And that's in a county that's supposed to be one of the best for special education. And it's with the protections that the federal government provides. Imagine if those protections were loosened.

The law that governs special education is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and the biggest issue about the program is that it has been woefully underfunded and therefore not as effective as it could be. IDEA provides about $11.6 billion to states and local education entities each year to serve roughly 6 million students, which is far less than the districts need for these specialized services.

Romney wants to turn the program into a voucher system. It makes sense from a perspective of "reduce the federal government and let the states and parents pick up the costs," but in practice, the idea poses a substantial risk to families who are already struggling with major financial needs. Read about his plan in Education Week.

In this commentary, "Romney's Radical Plan for Title I and IDEA,"a speech therapist in a public school points out the flaws in Romney's logic:

"Not all Title I or IDEA kids are the same; not all need identical services....Imagine two IDEA special education students, Abby and Ben. Abby has only a mild speech impairment, and receives 30 minutes/wk of speech therapy at school. But Ben has multiple, severe disabilities. He requires Life Skills classes; speech, physical, and occupational therapy; an orientation and mobility specialist; and an aide to help him with activities of daily living like eating and toileting. Will Abby and Ben each get the same flat voucher amount to put in their backpacks? If not, what formula will you use to determine how much each student should get?

"And of course, Title I and IDEA help pay for programs and equipment that are not student-specific. For example, my district has all kinds of equipment to help kids with disabilities participate in regular PE classes with their peers. One piece of equipment may be used throughout the day by multiple students. I'm a speech therapist, and we have test instruments and therapy materials that we share across schools, when needed. It's not always cost-effective to buy software for one student with a learning disability, but it becomes much cheaper the more site licenses you buy....Does anyone really believe that a tiny charter school is going to be able to provide all of this support on Johnny's $1,000 voucher?

"[In Romney's opinion] we cannot help each other out by pooling money for insurance so that everyone can have health care. We cannot help each other out by pooling education funds so that all kids, no matter how severe their needs, can get the education they deserve. No, Romney's going to do away with any hint of collectivity; put a random dollar value on your child's education; and give him a coupon for Voucherville instead."