Posted 12:06 PM by Susan Darst Williams

NEBRASKA 12th IN THE NATION IN DISABLED CHILDREN?

Nebraska ranks 12th in the nation in the percentage of "Children With Disabilities," as defined by their schools, according to the Congressional Quarterly 2003 State Fact Finder book, based on the 1999-00 school year.

That's not surprising, in light of last week's revelations in these columns that spotlights possible widespread mislabeling of children in Nebraska as being "learning disabled." The phenomenon suggests that schools are deliberately miseducating young children and crippling their reading abilities to force them into special education categories, in a cynical grab for additional federal funding.

This is a scandal, sports fans. One would hope the outcry about this ranking would be a lot louder than the outcry about falling out of the top 10 in football.

Maybe Go Big Ed ought to get some tough, new coaches to go get in the educators' faces and make 'em run the stairs 'til they can show they're doing a better job for our kids.