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Voucher Plan
Revived, With Focus on Autistic Students
Staci Hupp, IndyStar.com, November 24, 2005
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Republican
lawmakers have revived a stalled push to create school vouchers
that would give students public money to transfer to private
schools. But this time, they'll target only one small group:
autistic children.
The plan is a natural fit because the number of autistic
students has multiplied to about 5,500 statewide while public
schools often lack the expertise to teach them effectively,
according to supporters who are at work on a bill for the
legislative session.
"There's a moral imperative of assisting these families in the
way that they believe is best and, second, it has the added
benefit of being a very fiscally sound program," said House
Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, one of four Republican
lawmakers who met this week with a legislator from Ohio, where
school voucher programs have mushroomed. "I'm certain if we do
this, some schools will choose to concentrate in this, which
will bring the cost to educate students down for the state."
Voucher advocates say some private schools, hospitals and
therapists are better equipped to meet the special needs of
children with autism, a developmental brain disorder that
affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with
others.
The plan's financial details haven't been worked out. Lawmakers
estimate it costs up to $40,000 a year to teach one child with a
severe form of autism.
Public school administrators and other critics think the autism
plan is just a tactic voucher supporters will use to gain some
momentum for broader voucher offerings less than a year after
more sweeping legislation failed.
"At a time when they can't properly fund education . . . now is
not the time you start trying to figure out how to take money
away from those institutions the state has the largest
responsibility towards," said John Ellis, director of the
Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents.
Republicans backed a school voucher bill this year that would
have given parents the tax money to transfer their children from
a failing public school into a private or public school of their
choice. They argued vouchers give children access to a better
education and give public schools the competition they need to
improve.
Bosma acknowledged a voucher program could start with autistic
children and expand later.
"We have to walk before we begin to run in the school choice
arena," he said. "I think this is the next step, to look at
those who could be served better and more efficiently."
Eighteen school voucher programs have sprouted in 11 states,
although 36 states have looked at proposals. Florida, Ohio and
Utah have voucher programs specifically for autistic or disabled
children.
Ohio's voucher program, the nation's second largest, includes up
to $20,000 a year for each autistic student. About 300 of the
state's 5,400 eligible children took advantage of the vouchers
this year, said Rep. Jon Peterson, a Republican from Delaware,
Ohio.
Peterson said the voucher program pays only for services flagged
on an autistic child's federally required individualized
education plan.
Ohio's voucher plan stemmed in part from state findings that
public school services for autistic children were uneven at a
time when the population was on the rise. Recent epidemiology
studies have shown that autism spectrum disorders are 10 times
more prevalent than they were just 10 years ago. Autism is the
second most common developmental disability, next to mental
retardation. Autism disorders occur in as many as one in every
166 births.
Many colleges and universities traditionally haven't trained
teachers to work with autistic children.
"Some school districts are providing superlative services,
others are failing miserably," Peterson said. "This is where
school choice should work. It provides parents with an option."
Whether voucher programs fix the problems is unclear.
Researchers have only just begun to tackle the question.
Indiana has at least three private schools for autistic
children. But most autistic children go to public schools.
For autistic children, a state grant adds about $8,500 per year
on top of regular education costs. But many schools lack the
trained people and established programs to teach them, said
Susan Pieples, who heads the Autism Society of Indiana.
Pieples, Carmel, said her 18-year-old autistic son struggled in
public school.
"There are teachers who want to do a good job and simply don't
have the resources," she said. "It makes so much more sense to
do something like a voucher program where kids can go to special
schools -- the kids who need it. Some must be taught
one-on-one."
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