Mississippi’s Education of the Visually- and Hearing-Impaired: A Comparison of the Costs and Effectiveness of the State’s Residential Schools and the Local School Districts
Executive Summary
Because federal law requires all public school districts to provide a free and appropriate public education to hearing- and visually-impaired students which may, but is not required to, take place in a residential setting, and because the Mississippi Schools for the Deaf and Blind have continued to educate students with these disabilities, the state faces a scenario of funding and operating dual service providers for hearing- and visually-impaired students.
PEER sought to compare the cost and effectiveness of the Schools for the Deaf and Blind to the education of hearing- and visually-impaired in the state’s local public school districts. To compare the service providers, PEER first calculated annual costs per student at the Schools for the Deaf and Blind and per hearing- or visually-impaired student in the local school districts statewide. PEER then sought to identify benefits provided by a residential education and compare them to those provided by the districts.
At a FY 1999 cost of $42,500 per student, it cost $34,700 per year more to educate a blind and/or deaf student at the state’s residential schools than in the local public school districts. Factors contributing to the high relative costs of operating the state’s residential schools for the hearing- and visually-impaired include unique cost components not present in local school districts (e.g., operating and staffing dormitories); allocation of other costs among fewer students; and, expansion of a pre-vocational program with costly capital facility and specialized staffing needs.
Despite the disparity of per-student cost between the residential schools and the local school districts, PEER found no conclusive evidence of greater benefits from a residential education. In comparing the two, PEER found no appreciable difference in teacher qualifications, educational requirements, educational outcomes, or extracurricular activity requirements.
Recommendation
Due to the relatively high cost of a residential education for hearing- and visually-impaired students, the State Department of Education should further refine cost and effectiveness comparisons to develop policy options addressing the future of the Schools for the Deaf and Blind. This proposal could include policy options such as continuing to fund the schools as presently constituted, or closing the schools and implementing one or some combination of the following:
As soon as is practicable, but no later than the 2002 legislative session, the department should present this proposal to the House and Senate Education committees and other appropriate legislative committees for their use in budget discussions and policy debate.