Half Mill For Special Education 'absolutely Crucial'

(THIRD OF A SERIES) A two-year-old child is diagnosed to be totally deaf. A sixyear-old boy begins stuttering badly. A 14-year-old girl is confined to her home for severa] months with rheumatic fever. These could be a few of the 8,475 children who receive special education services from the Washtenaw Intermedíate School District. Next Monday, all registered Intermedíate School District voters (not just property owners) will be asked to increase the financial support for 16 different special education programs by one-half mili- from one-half mili to one mili. The half-mill increase would cost taxpayers 50 cents per $1,000 of state equalized valuation, or $5.50 per year on an "average" Ann Arbor home assessed at $11,000. In 1959, the voters of Washtenaw County approved levying of one-half mili to support special education programs for physieally and mentally handicapped children from the 10 local districts of Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Willow Run, Lincoln, Saline, Milan, Manchester, Chelsea, Dexter and Whitmore Lake. In 1959, special education teachers numbered 38 for 1,924 children. ' Ten years later, this same half-mill is supporting some 200 teachers for 8,475 students. "And it just isn't adequate," saysNickA. Ianni, the superintendent of the Washtenaw Intermedíate School District. "We've tried to live within our means, but our means are barely allowing us to breathe." Ianni has said passage of the millage is "absolutely crucial." He adds, "We've gone just about the longest of any intermedíate district in the state without increasing our millage. At least 12 intermedíate districts are going for more millage this June. At least five sought increases prior to this year." The Intermedíate School District trustees set the special education millage proposal March 18, following a unanimous recommendation by the Washtenaw County School Superintendents' Association. This recommendation was, in turn, a modification of the recommendation by the Special Education Needs Study Committee - a group o f special educators and community organization leaders- for a onemill increase. What are these special education programs? The Intermedíate School District educates or helps finance the education of all physically and mentally handicapped children in the county. There are 60 teachers for Ann Arbor; 40 for Ypsilanti; 11 for Willow Run; three for Chelsea; three for Dexter; six for Lincoln; two for Manchester; five for Milan, three for Saline; two for Whitmore Lake; 10 at Eastern Michigan University's Rackham School; 10 at University of Michigan Hospital, and 4 5 for the Washtenaw Intermedíate School District programs. The programs provide training for the mentally retarded, deaf, hard-of-hearing, partially sighted, orthopedically handicapped and emotionally disturbed. Also part of the special education services are gráms of vocational rehabilitation and speech therapy, programs for homebound and hospitalized children, for unwed mothers and for adolescents in the county's Juvenile Detention facility. The Intermedíate School District also provides school social work and diagnostic services and operates a consultant program for special education teachers. There is no overlapping or duplication of services, for the Intermediate School District provides only those special services which cannot be offered by local school districts. This, in fact, was one of the main reasons why the Intermedíate School District took over many of the special education programs 10 years ago. Many of the local distriets, especially the smaller ones, could not afford to offer a specialized program to a small number of children. On a county-wide basis, however, such programs were financially possible. It costs twice as much to edúcate a mentally handicapped child as a child with normal mental ability. It costs four times as much to edúcate a physically handicapped child as a non-handicapped one.