Fifty years ago, Congress enacted the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a landmark law to ensure children with disabilities had equal access to public education. To mark this anniversary, Congress should pass a grand compromise: fully funding special education—as originally promised—while requiring states to offer parents education savings accounts (ESAs) to choose alternative schooling options. This reform would achieve bipartisan goals and benefit seven million children.
IDEA responded to widespread injustice. Before its passage, public schools routinely excluded children with disabilities. IDEA provided federal funding to states and school districts and gave children with disabilities the right to a “free and appropriate public education.” But Congress has never fulfilled its pledge to fund 40 percent of special education costs. Last year, Congress distributed $14 billion in IDEA grants, but meeting the 40 percent commitment would require more than $40 billion annually.
While IDEA’s legal protections were essential, they haven’t guaranteed that all children with special needs receive the services they deserve, especially those from lower-income families. The law provides a right to an Individualized Education Program (IEP), a plan negotiated between the public school system and the child’s parents, but not a right to a high-quality education of the parents’ choice.
The IEP process is often adversarial. The need to ration access to scarce special education resources, including placements in specialized schools, can result in parents and school districts using lawsuits to decide which children gain access to services. As a result, children whose parents cannot afford to hire lawyers or who are unable to navigate the bureaucratic IEP process are less likely to receive needed services. ‘
A 2024 review by the District of Columbia’s Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, on which I serve, exposed this problem and injustices in how D.C. Public Schools deliver special education services. The report found that families often had to hire lawyers to obtain services legally required under IDEA. This puts students from less-affluent households at a clear disadvantage. The committee made dozens of recommendations, but two stand out: Congress should fully fund IDEA, and the District should give parents alternatives like scholarships or ESAs to access a high-quality learning environment without hiring a lawyer.
There is nationwide momentum to give special education students the right to attend a school of their parent’s choice. At least a dozen states now offer special education students access to ESAs or scholarships that let parents choose alternatives to their child’s assigned public school. More than 130,000 special education students used such options last year.
The grand compromise—fully funding special education while requiring states to offer ESAs—would benefit interests on both sides of the political aisle. Democrats would achieve a long-standing funding goal, helping public schools facing budget shortfalls and declining enrollments. Republicans would win a significant expansion of school choice, as increased IDEA funding would be contingent on states offering ESAs. This would extend choice to millions of children currently without alternatives.
Together, these reforms would ensure that children with disabilities have access to high-quality learning environments and give parents the power to choose the right place for their children.
Fully funding IDEA would be costly. But giving students with disabilities access to the education and therapies they need should pay long-term dividends. It could help more individuals thrive as adults, enter the workforce, and significantly reduce dependence on taxpayer-funded disability benefits and other government services. Moreover, if a significant number of families opt for alternative education options through ESAs, overall special education expenditures could decrease. To succeed, the law would need to be written to require states to provide families with the option of a real right-of-exit from their child’s public school and IEP.
Twenty years have passed since Congress last reauthorized the IDEA. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 72 percent of American fouth graders with disabilities scored below basic in reading. These children deserve more support. Fully funding special education and ensuring that all children with disabilities have access to choose a high-quality learning environment would be a grand bargain worthy of broad bipartisan support.