Budget is feeble on special ed

As far as I can see (and I have a call in to the Budget Division press office) Gov. Paterson's budget is all about cost shifting in this fat-filled area, as opposed to genuine cost cutting, and does not even include the reforms advocated in pages 73 to 85 of the final report (released Dec. 1) of the Suozzi Commission on Property Tax Relief. I don't see anything about reducing state mandates that exceed federal mandates; nor about encouraging school districts to reduce their high rates of classification of students in need of special ed; nor anything about reducing litigation costs; nor anything about districts more efficiently sharing costs, e.g. in transporting students to BOCES. My wife, a longtime public school special ed teacher and also a former public school district board member, is an advocate of saving money to improve educational outcomes in this area. Regarding some other parts of Paterson's education budget, she's for the $40 million cut in Teachers Centers, but dubious about cutting $10 million from a Teacher Mentor Intern Program and another $10 million from a summer math and science program provided to high school kids at colleges.