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Yes, it’s a good state education budget, but districts must not abandon students with disabilities [1]

['More From Author', 'June', 'Maren Christenson Hofer']

Date: 2023-06-22

We are writing in response to Denise Specht’s recent commentary about the significant increase for public education in the two-year budget recently passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tim Walz.

We agree that there is much to celebrate in the education legislation passed this session, including the READ act; funding for libraries; meals in schools; and substantial changes to address the gap between what schools spend on special education and English language learners, and what they receive from state and federal government.

These are welcome changes from our state government, but the truth of the matter is that these increases don’t even come close to keeping the promise made by the federal government 40 years ago to pay 40% of the cost of special education.

The action taken by our Legislature is definitely a welcome step, but it may come as a surprise to many that these provisions do not necessarily mean that more money is going to be spent on funding for children with disabilities. The additional funds provided by the legislation help close the gap between what schools spend on students with disabilities and the amount of money they receive from the state and federal government, but that money could wind up being spent on band uniforms, football fields, or anything else a district prioritizes.

And why should we care?

Much has been said about our disappointing student proficiency rates in Minnesota. Needed changes are being made to the way we teach reading, but few of those conversations dig deeply into the fact that only 26% of our students with disabilities are proficient in reading, only 24% are proficient in math, and 24% are proficient in science.

And those results are markedly worse when we look at students with intersecting identities: Just 12.6% of students who identify as both Black/African-American and a special education student are proficient in math and science and only 14.2% are proficient in reading. (Data can be found on the Minnesota Report Card found on the MDE website.)

One can argue about the validity of standardized testing, but the information these scores provide is completely unacceptable. The actual statistics when we consider all students with disabilities are likely even more alarming considering that many special education students do not take standardized tests. Alarm bells should be ringing for every parent and educator in the state about how poorly we are serving students with disabilities and especially those with intersecting identities.

There is much to celebrate in this year’s education bill, but we agree with Ms. Specht that the work is far from over. Now that the Legislature has taken a step towards addressing one of the major fiscal problems affecting school districts, we need to roll up our sleeves and ensure this money is put to good use.

In his State of the State address Walz spoke of his vision that no parent should have to settle for second best for their child’s education. Students with disabilities have been waiting for that promise to be fulfilled for a long time. Let’s make sure these funds are used to fulfill that promise.

Also contributing to this commentary: Julia Page, policy director of The Arc Minnesota; Rachel Berger of Decoding Dyslexia MN; and Claire Eckley, past president, Upper Midwest branch of the International Dyslexia Association.

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[1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/06/22/yes-its-a-good-state-education-budget-but-districts-must-not-abandon-students-with-disabilities/

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