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For the Children
Advocating for Your Child with Learning Disabilities By Kelly Burgess
"The future of education is special education for everyone," Langston says. "In other words, an education that is tailored to the individual whether they have learning problems or not. For example, a child who has maybe only been in this country a couple of years has one issue; a gifted child has another. There's no reason we can't set a precedent."
Right now, Langston says, the process of special education is hampered by a paperwork-oriented approach that creates long waiting lists for testing as well as kicking in well after a child has begun to fail. This creates problems with a child's self-esteem that can seriously hamper his attempts to focus on overcoming the learning disability. Because of this, our society pays on the back end for what we should be paying for on the front end.
"In New York something like 90 percent of all incarcerated individuals are dropouts," Langston says. "It costs $60,000 per year to incarcerate them. What if we took that $60,000 and gave it to the school and told them the money was to make sure that child was never incarcerated? All of a sudden, I bet we could do something. The question is: Do we want to spend that money on the front end or the back end?"