“This bill provides permanent, mandatory funding for the grant program that assists states and outlying areas in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities."

- IDEA Full Funding Act

The federal government has short-changed special education for decades. When legislation was passed in 1975, our most vulnerable students were finally guaranteed the right to a free appropriate public education. Since the newly required services would increase costs to local school districts, the new law also permitted 40% of the costs associated with special education to be covered by federal grants. Unfortunately, this funding level was never achieved. In 2019 the shortfall amounted to $3.2 billion annually just for the state of California.

The failure of the feds to uphold their commitment creates an antagonistic relationship between school districts and those representing nearly 7 million students with disabilities. Instead of collaborating with parents, school officials are forced to do everything possible to avoid fulfilling legitimate requests during the IEP process, especially those that are expensive to provide. As a result, only students with parents who can fight the system end up with the full range of services they need.

The lack of promised funding affects all students, not only those with special education needs. When not reimbursed for providing required services, school districts must balance the budget by reducing services that are not mandated. As a result, the learning environment for all children is diminished with higher class sizes and less support for non-academic services like music and art.

HR 5984, the IDEA Full Funding Act, would finally address the lack of promised funding by the federal government. Over 30% of the Congressmen in the house have signed on as co-sponsors for the bill, which, if enacted, would provide “permanent, mandatory funding.” These co-sponsors include 11 Republicans who understand that special education funding should not be a partisan issue.

While the LAUSD is greatly affected by the lack of federal funding, the Congressman representing the most northwestern part of the district has not signed on as a co-sponsor. A message was sent several weeks ago through his campaign website asking for his position on the bill, but a response was not received.

Reviewing Garcia’s website, it seems that education is not something that he prioritizes as there is no mention of this subject on his issues page. The education page on his official government website focuses mainly on contests for students. It also includes a press release about a letter that he sent with Kevin McCarthy (CA-23), Darrell Issa (CA-50), and Devin Nunes (CA-22) to California state education officials. He does not include any proposed federal legislation about education on the page.

Californians need representatives in Washington who will put partisan politics aside and work together when there is common ground. HR 5984 gave Mike Garcia the opportunity to step up. Unfortunately, he was not up to the task.

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.