A Modest Proposal

In 1729, British writer Jonathan Swift penned the essay, A Modest Proposal.  To this day, it serves as the penultimate example of satire in the English language. If you haven’t read it, you should.  I reference the work in title and as an allegory for proposing outrageous solutions to persistent problems.  Though, I believe THIS modest proposal could offer a solution for the problem of the shortage of qualified special education teachers.

There is clear and compelling evidence that special education is experiencing a severe shortage of teachers (TSA (ed.gov).  At all levels, from the doctoral training programs to support from classroom educational assistants, the number of professionals trained and available to educate and support children with disabilities in school are facing a steep decline.  Across the country, it is estimated that 314,134 teaching positions were either unfilled or filled with individuals who were not fully credentialed (Franco & Patrick 2023). 

Closer to home, the Professional Educator Licensing and Licensing Standards Board (PELSB) reports that “nearly a third of new teachers leave teaching within the first five years in the profession” - AND that special education is among the areas with the highest number of not-fully-qualified teachers (PELSBE, p.8).

It doesn’t take an investigation to understand why; talk to any exiting special education teacher. Teacher burnout in special education has a laundry list of well-documented evidence.  Work loads, compliance paperwork, student and parent behavior, and lack of support from administration are among the reasons cited for the overwhelming number of teachers who are leaving the field. 

I have a modest proposal.  

Though Jonathan Swift may have suggested eating the unwanted children of Ireland in 1729, mine is not nearly so off-putting (or so I think).  What if - to be a teacher - you had to be a teacher of ALL students.  What if - every teacher in a school was responsible for and qualified to teach ALL students, measure progress, write goals, administer assessments and manage the compliance paperwork?  What if we united the dual systems of education under one model.  

Dual systems you say?  With a nod to the venerable Russell Ackoff and his work on systems thinking - yes, our education system is really two separate and distinct systems.

Systems thinking would have us define an entity or object as a collection of parts that, when one of the parts is taken away, the entity no longer exists. 

The idea can be simple.  For example, a golf club is composed of the shaft, the head, and the grip.  Take any of these parts away and you no longer have a golf club.  While it is debatable as to whether most people, even with a complete golf club, can accomplish the goal of hitting the ball; it is certain that without one of these components, what you have is not a golf club.  

A more complex example might be of an automobile that is composed of different systems that work together to make it an automobile (thank you Dr. Ackoff).  There’s a transmission, a brake system, the engine, the electrical system, the steering system - all of which operate together to be an automobile.  Take one of those systems away, and the automobile cannot function as intended. 

If we take that systems thinking and look at schools, we might suppose that a school consists of teachers, students, curricula and administrators.  To some extent, one might consider transportation and buildings.  

Prior to the passage of IDEA in 1974, students with disabilities were not included in schools. When the law changed, it took some time before students with disabilities were actually enrolled in their local public schools. I was teaching in 1978 in Maryland when our first group of students were introduced into school.

While teachers  received professional development on the new requirements, such as IEPs - rather than being a part of the current, existing educational system, schools developed a separate model.  There were general education students and special education students. There were general education teachers and special education teachers.  There was the standard curriculum and the modified curriculum.  There were separate assessments and separate classrooms and separate transportation.  If we remember, the key to a system is if you pull out a component, you no longer have the entity.  I propose that the system we have now is really two separate systems.  If you pulled out the special education students, teachers, classrooms and administrators, the rest of the system would operate just fine.  

My modest proposal is that every teacher from the calculus teacher to the physical education teacher would be qualified and receive training to educate all students.  How do I love this? Let me list the ways:

Instead of the overburdened special education teacher responsible for 14 students’ assessments, IEPs and instruction, that work could be spread around the school - Every teacher could be responsible for 1 special education student’s IEP, thus distributing the work across an entire faculty.  

An expected benefit would be a more inclusive attitude of all teachers to all students. While most teachers sincerely try to be welcoming and inclusive, there is a substantial minority who view the presence of a student with a disability as a visitor, on loan from the special education department.   

Another benefit would be improved instruction across the board.  Almost every single accommodation made for a student receiving special education services benefits their non-disabled classmates. Every student might benefit from lecture notes provided in advance in writing, assignments broken down in small chunks, extra time on exams, and access to audio books.  

Administrative licenses would automatically include the coursework reserved for directors of special education, thus reducing the need for a separate administration. No longer would school districts fight between a “cross-subsidy” of general education and special education because all students would be under the same funding stream. 

That is Part I of my modest proposal.  Let’s do away with special education and replace it with just education.  

Part II of my proposal would be to lengthen the program of study for teacher candidates by at least one year to allow for additional training and make their tuition fully reimbursable through service in teaching.  For every year of service, ½ of a year of debt could be forgiven.  Therefore, teachers would be encouraged to remain in the field for 8 years, ensuring that students wouldn’t face a churning population of well-intentioned educators who enter fresh-faced and enthusiastic - only to leave within 5 years cynical and burnt out. 

Debt forgiveness for teachers is an idea almost everyone can get behind.  I can understand why some folks would question debt forgiveness for their investment banker or divorce lawyer - but not teachers. 

Part III of my proposal is to provide housing to teachers throughout their career.  Low cost to free housing such as apartments and townhomes could alleviate the burden of the cost of housing for teachers, especially those early in their careers. Such a benefit would allow them to amass savings if they should choose to eventually buy their own homes.  This proposal would also encourage teachers to live in the communities where they work, becoming part of the fabric of the neighborhood.

This 3 pronged approach could help attract and retain America’s best and brightest.  First, we undo the dual system of education, next we support teacher preparation fully, and finally we provide housing to help level the playing field of compensation.  There - if we want to encourage the minds and hearts of America’s best to enter the teaching field, we need to show a little appreciation.  So today, rather than propose to fricassee Irish Children, let’s get rid of a dual system of education, support all of our teachers, and improve education across the board.  We have to do something.  

Ackoff, R. L. & Greenberg, D.  (2008). Turning Learning Right Side Up:  Putting Education Back on Track. New Jersey: Wharton School Publishing

Darling-Hammond, L., DiNapoli, M., Jr., & Kini, T. (2023). The federal role in ending teacher shortages. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/649.892

Franco, M., & Patrick, S. K. (2023). State teacher shortages: Teaching positions left vacant or filled by teachers without full certification. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/ product/state-teacher-shortages-vacancy

Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (2023). 2023 biennial report Supply & demand of teachers in Minnesota. 

Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745. (1997). A modest proposal. Champaign, Ill. :Project Gutenberg.