The Mississippi state legislature recently passed a bill allowing children diagnosed with dyslexia to receive funding for treatment of their condition even if those children do not attend a public Mississippi school. In other words, public money is being awarded to private schools to educate children in private schools. Some oppose this measure as it looks like the state is supporting the privatization of education.
Senate approves dyslexia scholarship expansion #dyslexia
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Dyslexia funds are becoming available through the legislature.
The new measure would allow children with dyslexia to attend schools. This measure would allow a child diagnosed with dyslexia to receive scholarship money to attend a school with a program specifically designed to address dyslexia even if that school is a private one. Some legislatures pointed out that even with the scholarship program, there are children who live in rural areas who will still be unable to go to a school with dyslexia programming. Furthermore, the scholarship is only worth $5000 which will not cover the entire tuition at most private schools, leaving poorer children still without dyslexia services despite the new scholarship measure. In response to this, the bill was amended to ensure that whenever funding is available for programming that addresses dyslexia to be implemented in a public school, it must be.
Key Takeaways:
1
The Mississippi Senate passed a House bill that would help expand a dyslexia therapy scholarship program.
2
The bill allows students diagnosed with dyslexia to access vouchers to attend non-public schools, including those in neighboring states.
3
While the bill allows more access to special services, it doesn’t cover the full cost of such services, leading to questions about what would happen to students whose families can’t pay the difference.
