While Alan does a good job pushing the Democratic presidential candidate on education reform, I’d like to take the opportunity to push the Republican ticket as well. Actually, Uncle Charley is fairly busy these days. So let me point you to a great column by one of my favorite people in the world of education policy, Dr. Jay Greene. It appeared yesterday in National Review Online (that’s NRO for short: some of you liberals may even have heard of it).

Greene takes a clip from Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech where she pledged that families of special-needs children will “have a friend and advocate in the White House” and uses it to push a terrific idea. Well, not only is Greene a renowned expert in education research, he also has something in common with Palin—he’s the parent of a special-needs child. On more than one level he knows what he’s talking about when he discusses the Individual Education Plan (IEP) process operative under current federal law:

<blockquote>The difficulty is that schools are very experienced at drawing up these contracts, while parents are usually less savvy in the negotiations. Schools know how to limit their obligations to provide services and lower expectations for progress, while parents are often unaware of the services that state and federal governments are already paying schools to provide for their kids.

But even when parents manage to negotiate for what their children really need, getting the schools to live up to the contract is extremely difficult. It is in the financial interest of schools to under-deliver on the agreement, since in doing so they still receive the extra funding that state and federal governments provide, but save on expenditures. Unless parents can prove that schools acted in bad faith, the worst that can happen to a school that skimps on services is that they can be ordered to provide what they had originally promised. With little downside, schools will often be tempted to take the subsidies and under-deliver on services.</blockquote>

Greene’s solution is one that won’t make me terribly popular here, but it’s one finding success in several states:

<blockquote>Given Sen. McCain’s strong endorsement of vouchers and Gov. Palin’s commitment to special-needs children, special-ed vouchers could be a major initiative in a McCain administration. And since special education is already a matter of federal responsibility, a nationwide special-ed voucher program is one of the few reforms that a president could pursue without expanding the federal role in education. Even better, because special-ed vouchers are worth no more than the cost of services already provided by public schools, there is no additional burden to taxpayers.

Disabled kids need an advocate in the White House, especially an advocate with a plan that could significantly empower families to obtain services. Gov. Palin may be that advocate and special-ed vouchers could very well be that plan.</blockquote>

While Barack Obama is making strides by issuing education reform promises previously unheard of by national Democratic candidates, John McCain likewise has a chance to push a groundbreaking initiative. I think Greene really is onto something. Hopefully someone from the McCain-Palin campaign was tuned into his NRO column.

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