Why I'm Running

It doesn’t seem to matter who one talks to - be it young people, parents, or educators - everyone who interacts with our special education system is dissatisfied. We must change that.

 

To fix special education, I believe we must dramatically improve funding, parental involvement and service quality:

• Modernize special education funding so that it is not solely dependent upon local property taxes,

• Create an independent office at the state level to improve parental voice and ensure violations of 504 plans and IEPs are resolved,

• Improve support for parental advocacy, and

• Expand support for Special Education educators.

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Michigan’s special education funding system is one of the few “pre-Proposal A” funding structures left, the other being local building improvement funding. Both need dramatic overhauls. It is completely ridiculous that in today’s Michigan “thumb” counties, as an example, our special education funding structure limits one county to providing 1/10th of the investment in special education services that the county next door can. If we want to realize the promise of special education services for all students as provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Act and throughout Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, then we must fix this antiquated funding structure. 

 

In partnership with this investment, we must also work toward providing greater equity of special education services for students and better engagement for families, and hold ourselves accountable to providing both. I have heard far too many stories of services that are inadequate, problems with individualized education and 504 plans, and feelings of hopelessness by parents. We continue to have problems with seclusion and restraint, coupled with concerns by educators about being hurt, though we passed laws to address these issues when I was a member of the Legislature. The three legs of the educational tripod: students, parents and educators all need significantly improved support, and this could not be more visible than in special education.

 

Special education educators are often the hardest positions to fill. If we want to improve quality of care, and we must do so, then we must also reverse this trend. I believe that this is an “all hands on deck” scenario, where we must create better professional learning environments and compensation structures to help recruit aspiring educators, and likewise couple these with improved advocacy services to help give students and parents a better voice. Special education is the only area of public education in our state that has a service mandate, and I believe we need to do a much better job of fulfilling it.