Special-needs scholarships improving education in state

THE success of Oklahoma’s Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program proves that when customers have power, providers are more responsive and service improves. This is breaking news only in government.

The Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program provides state funds to children with special needs to attend private schools. Since its creation in 2010, the program has been wildly successful. Last year, the program provided scholarships to 528 students. Participants credit the program with changing children’s lives for the better.

The scholarship program led to creation in Oklahoma City of the Good Shepherd Catholic School at Mercy, which is designed specifically to serve children with autism. Good Shepherd Catholic School has since opened three new classrooms outside of the school’s central location on the Mercy Hospital campus and 71 percent of its students are Lindsey Nicole Henry scholarship recipients.

“The growth of Lindsey Nicole Henry has absolutely helped us grow,” Pat Filer, director of Good Shepherd school, recently told The Oklahoman’s Ben Felder. “There are families who wouldn't be here if not for that.”

The program’s success can been seen in the weakness of the arguments offered by its critics, such as Andrea Kunkel, general counsel for Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration. Kunkel argues that not all private schools may properly serve children with special needs.

“Nobody has any idea how those schools are actually serving those students since the same standards that apply to public schools don’t apply to private schools,” Kunkel said.

That argument is nonsense. Contrary to her claim, there are people who absolutely know if students are being well served: the child’s parents. Under this scholarship program, parents have the power to choose a school, and they do so based on what they believe will be best for that child. Should a private school not live up to a parent’s expectations, they can withdraw a child from that school and transfer the student to another school. They can even return a child to the traditional public school system.

The continued growth of the scholarship program and schools serving special-needs students proves most parents are very pleased with the results.

Kunkel also notes federal law imposes requirements on public schools and that “there are mechanisms that parents can and do use to correct” situations when they feel a child is not properly served in a public school.

So on the one hand, critics of the scholarship program argue parents aren't capable of figuring out if their child is properly served in a private school, but then argue those same parents are fully capable of navigating federal, state and local bureaucracies to obtain an improvement in services not being rendered in a public school. If you can do the latter, then obviously you can do the former.

And the fact that public schools now face the potential loss of students and associated funding increases parents’ leverage when dealing with those bureaucracies. So the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarship Program benefits not only scholarship recipients, but also eligible children who ultimately remain in the public school system.

The lesson: Empowering consumers generates improved service every time. So why not expand this scholarship model to all student populations?