Marie Gryphon and David Salisbury, CATO Institute
June 10, 2002
In the latest installment of CATO's Policy Analysis series, Marie Gryphon and David Salisbury propose a plan for IDEA reform that goes farther than the Presidential Commission on Excellence in Special Education was inclined to go. (The Commission's recent report was the subject of a Gadfly editorial at http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=51#755). Agreeing with the Commission that IDEA has become mired in process rather than results, the CATO authors suggest that far more drastic change is called for, much of it at the state level. They suggest that states unilaterally assign a predetermined amount of funds to each student diagnosed with special needs, then make those funds portable. Parents could choose from a menu of services offered by the public schools or opt to take their funding to the private sector. Copies of this brief report are $6.00 each and can be ordered by calling 800-767-1241 or at www.cato.org. The report can be found at http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa444.pdf.
