Susan Senator

Sometimes I feel
Like I been tied to the whippin post
--Allman Brothers Band

Lately in these here parts, there has been a revival of public education's favorite whipping boy: special education, also known as SPED, or the blood-sucking parasite that steals the lifeforce from the far more deserving regular education kids, the ones who can actually do something with their lives.

Yes, this is the line of reasoning that came across my email this morning, from one of the email lists I am on which serves those in local government. Basically he asked me to "stand outside of myself for a moment," and consider the pure economic reality of the situation. He said that SPED does take away from regular education, surely I can see that, because there is less money. And the return we get on our dollar might not be worth it, he suggested or implied or maybe I inferred.

After the red cleared from my eyes, and I went and reattached my popped-off head, I fired back the following reply:

You assume I don't stand outside myself, but in fact I do. But I will never, ever agree that the way we educate people should be dictated by economics that are dictated by politicians who cut education funding and fund unnecessary wars and oil companies instead. Think about that. Why is there less money available for all education? Not a big enough pie. Why not? Because the federal and state governments' priorities are all wrong.

This is a civilized society. We have to do better for all of our people, regular ed and special ed and stop thinking so narrowly about what "reality" is and go to the powers that be and demand a bigger pie for ALL education. Until then, I am sorry to hear that some people will resent -- or blame -- the victim of this system.

I am also starting to hear the drumbeat of "That greedy SPED That greedy SPED." This is the way the song goes: