How Public Schools Benefit From ADHD
Public schools actually benefit in many ways from the alleged new disease, ADHD. The No Child Left Behind Act has put increasing pressure on schools and teachers to make sure their students pass standardized math and reading tests. Under the new Federal guidelines, if a school gets on the "failure" blacklist and fails to improve its performance over time, the school can lose tax funding or even be shut down. So teachers' and principals' jobs are at stake here.
This intense pressure pushes school authorities to resort to extreme measures to make sure teachers can maintain discipline in class. Hence, many public schools now make liberal use of an unproven, alleged disease called ADHD, and pressure parents to give normal, active, but bored children mind-altering drugs to keep them quiet in class.
Also, by promoting the myth of ADHD, public schools can pretend that their failure to educate our children, year after year, is partly the children's fault. We can't blame school authorities for a child's academic failure if the child has ADHD, can we? If kids who have ADHD "symptoms" disrupt classes, teachers can't teach the rest of the class. So how can we blame teachers and the schools for the third-rate education our kids get? So this alleged disease ADHD gives public- school authorities a convenient excuse to blame the victim, our children.
Public Schools Benefit Because ADHD Is Now An "Official" Disability
Public schools also benefit because ADHD is now officially classified as a "disability." The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) passed in 1990 gives public schools Federal special-education funds for children labeled as having a disability. Public schools can get in excess of $16,000 a year in tax money for a student in a special-education class, compared to the average $7500 per student in a "normal" class. Even worse, special-education funding costing from $20,000 to $100,000 per year has become common.
As a result, for every student a school classifies as ADHD and puts in a special-education class, the school can get from $10,000 to $90,000 per year in additional Federal tax funds. That is because the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act specifically forbids schools from considering cost when designing their special-education instruction programs.
By joining the ADHD bandwagon, public schools have literally hit the jackpot for Federal funds. It is morally obscene when public schools pressure parents to give their normal, active, but bored children mind-altering drugs to make them "behave" in class. The moral obscenity is compounded if schools benefit financially by dumping alleged ADHD children into special-education classes. This is akin to a prison warden putting inmates who demand better conditions into solitary confinement and then getting an extra $10,000 to $90,000 per inmate for doing so.
Parents, if public school officials tell you they think your child has this alleged disease, ADHD, beware. It is far more likely that your bright child is perfectly normal, and is fidgeting in class, not paying attention, or not listening to the teacher because he is bored out of his mind. It is far more likely that your local public school has PSTD (Public School Teaching Disorder) than your child has this alleged disease ADHD.
Joel Turtel
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