Corrupted Intentions

CONSERVATIVES talk a good game about lifting Uncle Sam’s heavy hand from the back of American education and restoring control of schools to parents and communities. It’s high time they tackle the “special” education of disabled students. For more than two decades, this program has embodied all that Newt Gingrich and the feisty freshmen say they abhor: onerous, unfunded federal mandates; extra benefits and rights for government-designated populations; opportunities for activists and lawyers to hustle more taxpayer-financed largesse; and, most of all, the smug assumption that Washington knows best how to run the nation’s schools.

The special-education program does not even work very well. And it costs real money: about $3.25 billion in federal funds each year, plus billions from Medicaid and other programs that help pay for services it mandates.

About the Author

Chester E. Finn Jr.

Mr. Finn is the president emeritus of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.

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CONSERVATIVES talk a good game about lifting Uncle Sam’s heavy hand from the back of American education and restoring control of schools to parents and communities. It’s high time they tackle the “special” education of disabled students. For more than two decades, this program has embodied all that Newt Gingrich and the feisty freshmen say they abhor: onerous, unfunded federal mandates; extra benefits and rights for government-designated populations; opportunities for activists and lawyers to hustle more taxpayer-financed largesse; and, most of all, the smug assumption that Washington knows best how to run the nation’s schools.

The special-education program does not even work very well. And it costs real money: about $3.25 billion in federal funds each year, plus billions from Medicaid and other programs that help pay for services it mandates.