The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
designed to prevent the neglect and segregation of special
education students, has resulted in the neglect and segregation
of even larger student populations of minorities nationwide,
including Arizona. The culprit: Perverse financial incentives to
classify children as "learning disabled" when in fact they are
"learning deficient," meaning they require remedial reading
instruction, not special education programs. Recent national
studies show that nearly 2 million children have preventable
learning "disabilities," and the number of students classified
as learning disabled could be reduced by as much as 70 percent
with rigorous early reading instruction. The sheer number of
students mislabeled is staggering. Even worse, in predominantly
White school districts minority students are classified as
learning disabled at significantly higher rates. This study
focuses on race and special education in Arizona's public school
districts, based on data from t