Comment on “Donation saves the school” story

by David Safier

Right below this, you'll find something I wrote about an $850,000 tuition tax credit donation back door voucher that comes straight out of the state's coffers. An insurance firm is using the law allowing unlimited corporate tax credits to pay tuitions for private schools. It will get every penny back when it files its AZ tax return.

Of the total, $400,000 will go to pay tuition for 23 students with a variety of learning disabilities — I don't know the nature and severity of the disabilities — to attend LIFE Academy in Gilbert. I asked, will they get a superior education at this private school to what they would receive if the same money — about $20,000 each — followed them to a Gilbert-area public school?

Commenter Patt replied.

Well, from what I see at the website, a mom started this school, because she has a developmentally disabled child. That mom has a degree in exercise physiology. It's unclear if the cofounder, "who worked in public schools," has any advanced education.

Could these children get an equal or better education in a public school?
I think so. I work in a school with seven Special Ed. self-contained classes, serving about 60 students. Two of these classes are pre-school classes. We have a school psychologist and two speech therapists on site. We also have a variety of itinerant specialists: physical, occupational, visual, and mobility specialists, adaptive Phys. Ed teachers, and access to other specialists as needed. All of these people are certified in their fields. Most of our students eat in the cafeteria with "normal" students and practice their functional and social skills. Special lunches, if needed, are prepared in our cafeteria. LIFE school touts that they have all the services in one place, but so do we, and I believe we offer a greater array of services.

All of our Special Education teachers are certified and all but one are "highly qualified," a requirement of NCLB. One of our Special Ed. teachers, with a Spec. Ed. advanced degree and certification in Early Childhood Education was selected as teacher of the Year in AZ a few years back, by the Council For Exceptional Children.

As a former Special Ed teacher, I have great empathy for parents of children with developmental disabilities. It's a hard road, so I'm leary of criticizing this mom or this school, although in general, I think public schools are not only more equipped to deal with children with disabilities, but also have the capacity to mainstream these students into regular classrooms for a part of the day. This benefits all students.