Questioning the need for a special ed czar at the DOE

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein was wrong to create a top-level position in his administration dedicated to students with special needs, Brooklyn College professor David Bloomfield writes in the GothamSchools community section. His latest post asks whether the long-awaited special education recommendations made to Klein this summer represent “Initiative or Inertia” at the Department of Education.

Bloomfield writes:

Special education is a continuum within the broad spectrum of public school instruction. … To separate these and other students with and without IEPs from the responsibility of all top DOE managers is to continue the marginalization of these students and their parents.