Dems turn thumbs down on scholarships for special-needs kids

Waving off pleas to give parents more educational options for children with special needs, majority Democrats on a Senate committee today thwarted a Republican bill offering tuition assistance so those kids can attend private schools.

Senate Bill 142--authored by assistant Senate GOP leader Nancy Spence, and sponsored in the House by Republican Rep. Spencer Swalm--would have started a pilot program in Denver Public Schools granting $3,000 in public funding toward the private-schooling of any child who isn't being well served by a neighborhood school.

"Parents will be given flexibility and choice for the first time," Spence told members of the Senate Education Committee, on which she is the ranking Republican member. "(This has) been an area where the state and federal governments have failed to provide adequate resources."

Two hours later--after extensive testimony--the committee's four Democrats voted to kill Spence's bill over Republican objections. The bill was part of the the Republicans' legislative agenda for 2008.

Spence, a veteran advocate of education reforms, unsuccessfully authored a similar bill in 2004 and carried into law a landmark school voucher program for poor, at-risk students in 2003. A lawsuit by the teachers union later stopped that program in court on a technicality.

Republicans on the committee expressed dismayed at the bill's defeat, and they pointed to opposition from the public education bureaucracy.

"This is a bill for parents and kids," said fellow Republican committee member Mike Kopp, of Littleton. "They--not any of the institutions testifying against this bill today--should be the primary focus of our concern."

Among those testifying in favor of the bill was 12-year-old Caleb Close, who suffers from Asperger's Disorder, a form of autism. Close said his parents finally have found a school that can help him with his disabilities, but he pointed out that many others aren't so fortunate and could use Spence's proposal.

"All kids should have this choice," he said.

Those testifying against the proposal included representatives from Denver Public Schools and the teachers union. They expressed concerns that the pilot program would draw resources away from special-needs students who opt to stay in public schools.

Spence, however, said her proposal was drafted so that students who left Denver Public Schools would leave behind a significant portion of the funding that was paying for their education in the district. That way, she said, the district actually would come out ahead for each special-needs student who opted out.

Spence said under her proposal, the reduced number of special-needs children who stayed in public school also would free up more time for teachers to spend on each student.