In 2014, The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., launched an investigation into the state of special education in Mississippi. They uncovered a range of abuses and troubling trends, most notably that, on average, only 23 percent of Mississippi’s students with special needs were graduating from high school. In many districts, that number was in the low single digits.
This investigation highlighted what many already knew: Mississippi’s most vulnerable children were being left behind, and this pattern wouldn’t stop unless policymakers took action.
Seventh-grader Lanna Beard was one of those vulnerable students. Lanna was adopted as an infant and diagnosed with visual perception disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome and severe ADD. These conditions make it hard for Lanna to process and retain information, focus, and stay on task. Routine activities are exceedingly difficult. Unfortunately, her assigned district school was unable to meet her needs. Lanna’s parents were even told she would never graduate. For Lanna’s parents, who knew she was capable of more, this was unacceptable.
The family began to search for a new school and her pediatrician recommended New Summit School, a private, special purpose school in Jackson, about 30 miles from the family’s home in Pelahatchie. From their first visit, the Beards fell in love with what New Summit offered, but their excitement was short-lived because they knew they couldn’t afford the tuition and fees.
Fortunately for the Beards, at just the right time, the Mississippi legislature adopted an Education Savings Account program for students with special needs, which gives families like the Beards new education options.
In 2015, Mississippi became the third state in the nation to create education savings accounts, an innovative approach to education that puts parents in charge and lets them craft a custom education as unique as their own child. Students with an Individualized Education Plan are eligible to apply and, if accepted, an education savings account is opened in the child’s name. Funds in the account can be used on private school tuition, tutoring, therapy, textbooks, online curriculum and other educational services. The program quickly hit its cap of 425 students and many more signed up for the waiting list.
Mississippi’s special needs education savings accounts program is one of 61 school choice programs in the nation. How do we know if these programs are serving their purpose and making a difference in the lives of children enrolled? Generally in education, we look at measures such as standardized test scores, graduation rates or accountability ratings.
However, the most important and often overlooked measure is parental satisfaction. Parents, more than anyone else, are attuned to their child’s unique situation, learning needs and educational progress in ways that can’t always be measured by test scores.
In every prior study that has asked about parental satisfaction, there has been one common theme: Parents are more satisfied with their child’s school if they chose that school. After all, parents in a school they chose have the ability to make another choice if they’re not satisfied.
Parents are the ultimate accountability for any educational setting. That’s why we believe understanding parental satisfaction with Mississippi’s special needs education savings accounts is so important to evaluate its success. To determine how Mississippi parents felt about the new ESA program, we surveyed them. About 10 percent of program participants completed the survey.
We found that ESA participants are overwhelmingly satisfied with both the program and their child’s new school.
About 91 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the ESA program, while 98 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the school or education setting they chose for their child using an ESA. Conversely, just 24 percent of respondents were satisfied with the school their child attended prior to receiving the ESA.
The data paint a clear picture: Parents love this program and the responses from happy parents reinforce how life-changing this program really is.
“Our satisfaction goes beyond words,” one parent said. “Our son left the public school system feeling defeated with zero confidence. He has gradually learned that he’s not stupid and we feel like our child is coming back to life.”
Another parent said, “We are very satisfied with our children’s current school. We have seen tremendous growth with both children. This program has been a true blessing to our family.”
By all measures, the program has been a great success. So why is it limited to students with special needs?
Education savings accounts are ushering in a revolution in education across the country as states work to emulate Arizona, who enacted the first education savings account program five years ago. Today, five states have education savings accounts and another 18 have introduced legislation that would create similar programs. Many expect more than 25 states in the union to introduce education savings accounts legislation in 2017. And in 2015, Nevada enacted the most far-reaching school choice program ever designed, a near-universal education savings account available to every public school student in the state.
In Mississippi, a state with a long history of well-documented education challenges, education savings accounts are opening new doors of opportunity to students with special needs. But the scope of impact is far too limited. Even as increasing numbers of students with special needs are signing on to the program, policy leaders in Mississippi ought to follow Nevada’s lead by expanding education savings accounts to every student in the state.
Any parent that finds themselves in a situation like Lanna’s parents—knowing their child is not in the best educational setting for that child—should be able to enroll in an education savings account to meet their child’s unique educational needs.
Grant Callen is founder and president of Empower Mississippi, an organization working to expand school choice in Mississippi. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
