fleecing

So whenever a school bond issue comes up, and you as a taxpayer are asked to give more money, ask the school board how much was spent in one year on attorney fee’s to defend against parents who have children with disabilities. Ask what the cost was of what the “frivolous” request was from the parent; and for the love of Texas, ask what they instead chose to spend in attorney fees to deny that request. - Michelle Guppy

Texas Taxpayers and the TEA: The Fleecing of Special Education

If you are a taxpayer, this letter is directed to you.

True, it may not directly apply to many of you, but it is very much about you. You see, as a taxpayer, whose money supports the public education system in Texas, you are an accomplice to a crime you didn’t even know was being committed: the fleecing of special education. Perhaps that may not be a crime that is written in any law book, but still very much a crime of indecency indeed...

And in so many respects, that is what is happening to Special Education in Texas.

To start with, the schools do not even have the amount of money they need for educating students with disabilities in the first place, (thanks to our lawmakers), and to make matters worse, and what is so totally bizarre to me, is that they spend money they do have and could be using to educate those very students, on attorney fee’s against the parents of those very students!

So make no mistake, the cost to taxpayers in footing the bill for those attorney fees is being fleeced - covered up. Not so much in that they are trying to hide it, but in that no one seems to know they should be looking for it! And they should! You should! It's time for a Texas-sized shearing of the facts! What you don’t know, is not only hurting your wallet, but it’s hurting the chances of success for thousands of students with disabilities. In so many instances, not only is the system defrauding parents of their child's right to a Free and Appropriate Public Education, (FAPE); but YOU are paying them to do it.

How?

By a very unequal system of checks and balances. The very agency charged with overseeing the school district in providing that FAPE for students receiving special education services, is the one that oversees the complaint process. What do parents do when they don’t agree with what the school has provided for their child? Their end of the line defense is to file for Mediation or Due Process, whereby the Hearing Officer is paid by the system the parent is in disagreement with. How unbiased does that sound to you?

That the majority of parents do not win in Due Process, should not leave you to assume that they were wrong or that their complaint was “frivolous” and without merit. What it should leave you to assume, is that the parent ran out of money before the school did, and that the very process was stacked against the parent. (Not to mention that for every one parent who managed to beg, borrow, or steal the money for Due Process, there are about 10 who couldn’t, and have no choice but to stick with the status quo).

If you went to court for a very worthy reason, would you want the Judge over your case brainwashed with the mantra that “if you rule in favor of this parent, think of the precedence you would set in having to award this to ALL parents who think their child deserves better”???. I would think not. But that is a very real issue whether you believe it to be true or not.

And the cost of that process? Footed by you the taxpayer.

Attorneys hired by the School Districts defend the school district at a high cost in most instances. Don’t believe me? Look it up! Ask your local school district board of trustee's for invoices having to do with attorney fees paid to them related to special education.

When talk of laws or regulations limiting those funds the schools can spend on a reasonable defense is mentioned, schools cry, “We have a right to fully defend ourselves!” (The irony in that is that if they were providing FAPE, they wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place, but no one gets that point either. Trust me, parents of children with disabilities have better things to do with their time and money than to file frivolous law suits.) Yes, I agree, schools do have a right to defend themselves from the 1% of cases filed that have no merit. But for the other 99% of cases filed, at what cost to you the taxpayer does the school have the right to fleece??? Especially in light of the fact that if anyone cared to research it, (please do) the cost of what the parent asked for in the first place, would be probably 1/10^th the cost of litigating the issue through Due Process and Appeals and Circuit Courts and etc.

So, as a taxpayer, wouldn’t you want to know if your school could have just paid maybe $10,000 in additional training for a special education teacher, to not only benefit that student, but other students, before they fleeced you for a $100,000.00 attorney fee for that school to argue in an ARD, at Mediation, or through Due Process that the special education teacher didn’t need more training? Why, (and I know I’m just a mom of a child with a disability with no real merit or credentials), - that would leave about $90,000 toward that new stadium for your typical child (who has all the services, teacher training, tutoring, and gifted-talent programs they need) - to play football in!

And if you think this doesn’t apply to you even despite the fact that your tax dollars are being used for this, then think about your adult child’s cost as a taxpayer one day. In having to pay for the lifelong care of their classmate whom they perhaps never paid attention to in school, who was in a classroom in the far corner of the building, not being taught as well as they could have been. With autism alone, those numbers are 1 in 150. Where are all those students going to go when they “age out” at 21 and have no skills for independence when they very well could have? Because again, where the school could have spent 10,000 extra dollars for teacher training, they instead chose to spend $100,000.00 in saying and defending that no, they didn’t need additional teacher training. Your adult children’s tax dollars will be building, staffing, and maintaining, for a lifetime, those facilities. All because as a society, taxpayers chose not to notice, care about, research, or stop, - the fleecing of special education in Texas.

All because as parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, and lawmakers, we did not collectively agree that “No Child Left Behind” – truly means NO CHILD left behind.

As long as the public school systems know they can get away with inadequate and inappropriate programs for students receiving special education services in Texas, there will be taxpayers being “fleeced” by footing the bill for those very schools to hire attorneys at any cost, to “defend” themselves against any type of due process.

And they can do that, pay whatever it takes in attorney fees, because again, it’s not their money they are spending, - it’s your money!

And I know that there are good school districts out there with some very good programs, so if this doesn’t apply to you, don’t worry! But if it does, - then be worried. Be very worried….

Reporters….dare to confront this issue with the bravery of a lone parent attending an ARD meeting that is stacked 10 to 1, – and pursue at any cost publishing a series called “The Fleecing of Special Education in Texas.”

Look into what schools pay in attorney fees, look into the nature of the complaint, look at the benefit of what that parent is requesting in not only benefiting their child, but other children! Do it for the parents who need to file, but can't because they know that they will never be able to buy their verdict as the schools can.

It is time to shear the sheep of its pretty, fluffy, abundant wool, and expose the bare naked truth about the fleecing of special education, and your tax dollars, in Texas.

Written by Michelle M. Guppy, MichelleMGuppy@...

….. for Brandon.

To parents… as the footsteps of the next Legislative session in Texas fast approaches, I encourage you to bring the issues that this letter represents to the attention of your legislators! If not for your child, then please do it for mine!

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

- Albert Einstein