Florida’s McCay Program
The article, “For Families with Special Needs, Vouchers Bring Choices, Not Guarantees,” highlights issues with the voucher program, and specifically how it relates to children with special needs. Although this is not a new article (it is actually a few months old), I feel that it is still relevant to the current discussions in the United States regarding education. I found it while skimming the NPR website, and figured it would be a great addition to the discussion of education in North America.
Personally, I have always felt strongly about the voucher programs proposed federally and by state governments. It has always been my belief that these vouchers further extend the education gap, between rich and poor, able and special-needs, and private and public. After reading this article, and hearing first-hand accounts of the issues with the voucher program, I am left frustrated and saddened.
As discussed in the article, the “McCay Scholarship Program”, a Florida program that gives options other than their district-bound public school for parents of students with disabilities. This program offers up to $22,000 for 31,000 students with disabilities in the state of Florida. The average scholarship amount is $8,000, $1,000 more than the state would spend on each pupil in an average Florida public school. It gives parents and students the ability to find a school that can help their special needs, so that the child can get the best education possible. While this sounds beneficial on the surface, there are many issues with this program, as discussed in the article attached below.
First, because the average scholarship amount is $8,000, and only $1,000, the state often saves money when special needs students choose to accept the McCay scholarship. Although this sounds like a positive aspect for the state, it is unfortunate for the families of these students, who often have to bear the extra cost of the private school, along with transportation and other needs. Sadly, for low income parents of students with disabilities, the McCay scholarship will not allow them to get adequate education, because of the extra fees associated with sending children to private schools. Many low-income families just cannot feasibly afford this for their children.
Along with this, parents often hit barriers accessing private schools. These schools can deny students based on their special needs, and because they are private, do not have to comply with current disability laws in place. This leads to difficult searching for the students and families.
Sometimes, though, a student is lucky, and with the help from the McCay scholarship, can be given opportunities to help them grow and develop as people.
Currently, there is a lot of debate on school vouchers and whether we should federally implement them. Seeing this article, it is clear to me that we should focus our attention on fostering public schools’ special needs programs that are already in place. This is the only way for the state to ensure that the funding is going to an equal-opportunity school that will follow federal and state laws. On top of this, by nurturing the programs already in place, we can create diversity and choice in a different manner — by focusing our resources, we could allow for parents to choose which public school’s special education system fits the needs of their child best.
Hopefully, in the near future, we can come to a consensus on how to appropriately use state and federal funding to help all students, including students with special needs. But, unfortunately, as this article shows, we are currently in a tumultuous time for voucher programs and their success, or failure.
