Gov. Haley Barbour is recommending cutting education programs for gifted, special and vocational programs by 68 percent, reports WLBT. Making such deep cuts to state funding for the programs would result in losing $176 million in federal funding, as well.

"Educating a special needs child is obviously very costly. You need very small teacher/people ratio. You have to have a lot of special equipment and materials and it takes money, there's no doubt about that," Magnolia Speech School Director Anne Sullivan told WLBT.

Sullivan went on to say that she sees the cuts as an opportunity for Mississippi's state special education programs to work with private-sector organizations such as the Magnolia Speech School, which is a private, non-profit entity.

"You get these children early, and you give them quality intervention early. Then you're not going to spend a lot of special-ed dollars on them later on," Sullivan told WLBT.

Previous Comments

ID

154513

Comment

This headline absolutely makes me cringe. Before moving to MS, my special needs child received services for autism in FL through the public school system beginning at age two through the third grade when we moved here. I was shocked and appalled at what was available here compared to what to we had been getting. And there is no state income tax in Florida! Okay, so the property taxes are way higher, but still...

Author

chaffeur

Date

2009-12-29T10:32:00-06:00