Covered in 2306 this morning. More conflict between Texas and the national government.
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. . . the U.S. government says Texas violated an unambiguous federal law requiring states to maintain the same amount of funding each year for special education services in order to continue to be eligible for federal special education grants. Steering clear of literary devices to argue its case, the federal government is claiming in court that Texas needs to be stripped of $33.3 million in federal funds — the same amount that the state cut.
A panel of three judges will hear from both sides Wednesday morning in New Orleans, and determine whether Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos' decision to take away Texas' funding should stand. Texas lost its challenge at the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Hearings and Appeals in May, and in July successfully petitioned the 5th Circuit to take up the case.
If Texas fails to defend its decrease in spending, it stands to lose the equivalent of about 3 percent of its annual federal special education grant.
This week's argument comes months after the U.S. Department of Education, in a separate investigation, found Texas was failing to provide many students with disabilities with an adequate education and effectively denying services to thousands of students who needed extra support. State education officials are now tackling a long list of federally mandated reforms to special education, including closely monitoring and supporting schools struggling to properly educate kids with disabilities.
Many educators told federal investigators that they saw evaluating students for special education services as a "last resort" for students having trouble learning, a major violation of federal law. Texas spent less in 2011-12 in part because its percentage of kids in special education dropped that year to 8.6 percent — the lowest rate in the country.
