The House Education Committee considers HB 687, Tax Credits for Children with Disabilities.  Previous posts on the bill can be found here and here.

Bill sponsors, Rep Paul Stam (R Wake) and Rep Laura Wiley (R Guilford), also a former special education teacher, explain the $6,000 credit for parents to find other educational options if the public schools are not meeting the needs of their special needs children.  Fiscal research estimates that 1 percent to 5 percent of eligible students will use the credit and predicts a $1.2 to $6.2 million a year savings to the state.  This credit would address the inequality of parents who ALL want to do the best they can for their children but some can afford other options – some cannot.

Rep Susan Fisher (D Buncombe) asks about a cap on the amount of money that can be spent on a child with special needs within the public school system – how will this credit affect the childrens’ allocation…special needs funding is capped at 12.5 percent of an LEA’s average daily membership. Stam says under this bill schools will have more money per student.

NC Family Policy Council supports the bill.

NC Association of Educators oppose it, claims rights of students and parents are compromised, need to invest in the public school system.  Loses all of their protections under federal law, private school teachers don’t have qualifications that public school teachers have.

DPI’s Mary Watson says students with disabilites have made great progress under public schools, IDEA federal law only applies to public schools, there would not be parent protection in private schools, the IEP determines the best placement for the student and can currently been moved to private schools if they decide it’s needed . (No word on what the parents might think is best). Ms. Watson poses the question: “How will we know of the student’s progress or their graduation rate?”. I would ask what business is that of theirs?  Shouldn’t that be the parents’ concern?

NC School Boards Association and NC Association of School Adminstrators oppose the credit for special needs children.

The debate seems to come down to this: The public school representatives believe they are in the position to make the best decisions for childrens’ education; the bill sponsors believe parents are the best ones to make those decisions.

Vote on the bill:  21 yes; 26 no
The bill fails.