“Stealing” money from special education?

This article on the siphoning of stimulus funds for special education to general education is one of the few I’ve seen in the WSJ on special education. By itself, I think that’s a major achievement — it means that special education and the plight of students and the often under-funded special education departments is getting more attention.

My fear is that even good people, friends and relatives, colleagues and classmates, will see this as a good idea, as a way to protect general education kids. My fear is that they won’t think about the tremendous needs of so many of our children, not just those on the spectrum but also those with other developmental disabilities, those who are deaf and blind, those with dramatic medical problems.

This isn’t “budget realignment;” this isn’t “creative accounting:” this is stealing the future from these kids. If our “educators” do this indirectly now, how long until they do it directly? Is it just a matter of time?