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Henry column: Federal action sneaky, mean, shortsighted
| Tuesday, Feb 12 2008 7:05 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Feb 13 2008 8:03 AM
At first, I thought a new rule by the Bush administration to no longer reimburse schools for the administrative work they do arranging services for special ed, disabled and poor students was just shortsighted.
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Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno: Drop him an e-mail by going to his Web page at www.costa.house.gov and clicking on “contact” in the upper right corner or phone him at his Washington, D.C., office at 202-225-3341.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield: Visit his Web page at www.kevinmccarthy.house.gov and click on “contact” in the upper right corner to send him an e-mail or call him in Washington at 202-225-2915 or his Bakersfield office at 327-3611.
After learning more, however, I've added sneaky and mean-spirited to my assessment.
The expected savings from this new rule will be about $635 million a year. Is that even considered real money in Washington, D.C.?
In Kern County, the rule will mean a loss of between $6 million and $8 million a year from several districts, including $1.3 million a year from Kern High School District alone.
Around here, that's real money. It could pay for a school nurse, maybe a specialist for hearing-impaired students, supplies or seed money for grants.
Without that federal reimbursement money, school employees will still do the work, the district just won't get any cash for it.
"In tough budget times like these, it's a hard, bitter pill to swallow," Steve Moyer, manager of special education at KHSD, said of the new rule.
Here's how the program worked:
School staff regularly help parents get services through Medicaid -- Medi-Cal in California -- for poor, disabled or special ed kids. That means teachers, nurses and counselors spend some of their time filling out forms and making appointments.
Districts track how much time employees spend on those administrative tasks and bill the feds, via the state, for half the cost. The districts foot the bill for the other half.
Schools are usually the first agencies to see students in need, so they've been the most cost-effective way to link children to services.
And school districts are mandated to provide education to all students. If some need special services to get that education, districts are on the hook for it.
The program was working and it was needed. Clearly, it had to go! (Shortsighted.)
Not only that, it was done with the swipe of a bureaucrat's pen.
This rule was one of several instituted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that will cut administrative reimbursements to hospitals, community health centers and more, shifting an estimated $11 billion in costs over the next five years to states.
Since it was all done through "regulatory" changes, Congress had no say. (Sneaky.)
Students eligible for these services are the poorest of the poor. If they can't get help through schools, they likely won't get it at all.
So, this pittance of a savings to the feds will leave truly needy kids behind or schools will have to spend more of their dwindling resources to help them, or both. (Mean-spirited.)
As a purely political side observation -- which I've made before about this administration -- this new rule also steps squarely on the toes of state's rights, something that used to be a big no-no in conservatives' playbooks.
California had worked out agreements so school districts could sign up eligible children. But now Big Brother says we can't do things our way.
The new rule will go into effect this June unless Congress stops it.
There is a bill, HR 4355, that will put a moratorium on the rule. It is awaiting a hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said he intends to become a co-sponsor of this bill. He also lamented the administration's attempt to further curtail funding that goes to special education, which the federal government has never fully funded as promised after making it a mandate for all school districts more than 20 years ago.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, likewise will co-sponsor the bill.
"I support the idea of a moratorium so we can look at this issue and solve it," he told me.
Perhaps if the federal government lived up to its promise from the 1970s and funded special education programs the promised amount, we wouldn't have to deal with this type of back-door budgeting.
Lois Henry's column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. E-mail her at lhenry@bakersfield.com or call her at 395-7373.