Marcus Winters and I have an op-ed in this morning’s Tampa Tribune on how Florida’s McKay voucher program for special education students has restrained the spiraling growth in special education enrollments in public schools. We write:
In Florida, as in most other states, schools receive additional funding for each student identified as disabled. Often, these additional resources are greater than the actual cost of providing special-education services, giving schools a financial incentive to increase their diagnoses.
The financial incentive to misdiagnose is particularly apparent when classifying students as having a specific learning disability (SLD). That’s because SLD is the most common, the most ambiguous, and the least costly category of special education. In many cases, school officials might simply be trying to get extra resources to help struggling students. But the net effect is the misclassification of a huge number of students as having an SLD.
The McKay program reduces the financial incentive for Florida’s schools to misdiagnose learning disabilities by placing revenue at risk whenever a student is placed into special education…
In our new study, we found as the number of nearby, McKay-accepting private schools increases, the probability that a public school will identify a student as having an SLD decreases significantly. The program reduced the probability that a fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-grader in a school facing the average number of nearby private options was diagnosed as SLD by about 15 percent.
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
[…] P. Greene Blog: Tampa Tribune Op-Ed In Florida, as in most other states, schools receive additional funding for each student identified […]
As schools in Florida start using RTI (Response to Intervention) we have seen a decrease in students identified as Special Education.
There may be cases where the research shows less identification, but we have not seen it.
Jay Greene’s research correctly shows that parents are happy with the McKay Scholarship
No surprise — these parents get a chunk of money, their child does not have to take the high stakes FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test — and there is no accountability for the private school student
Governor Bush shrewdly promoted real accountability into the public school system and allowed public funding without accountability for the private school student
A great coup for private schools, a low pressure solution for parents and a mockery of the concept of accountability
For a mockery of the concept of accountability see https://jaypgreene.com/2009/09/01/phony-numbers/ and https://jaypgreene.com/2009/08/25/the-student-privacy-racket/ and https://jaypgreene.com/2009/08/24/lets-get-ready-to-rummmmmble/ just for a start.
Dear Sir,
I beg to differ with your article in the Tampa Tribune. You stated that Florida has managed to “constrain growth in special education”. You attribute it to the McKay. Trust me in saying that is not the reason Florida has had a decrease in special education students. Additional services for students with disabilities (SLD primarily)cost more than the funding provided for these students through FTE and the weighted cost factor. The state of Florida has actually implemented the RtI model long before it was called RtI and that is why there is a decrease in special education students.
Kaye,
I suggest you read the study on which the op-ed was based (http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_58.htm ) as well as this blog post summarizing it (https://jaypgreene.com/2009/08/18/special-ed-vouchers-restrain-growth-in-disabilities/ ).
RTI may also be helping, but as several carefully designed studies have now shown, financial incentives contributed to growth in special ed and changing those incentives, such as with vouchers, constrains growth.
start my own import export business
Tampa Tribune Op-Ed | Jay P. Greene's Blog