Bad idea. (Scan).(school violence and education reform)(Brief Article)

The Education Reform Act passed recently by Congress and President Bush tripped over political correctness in its failure to fix one longstanding disaster in education law--1975's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA's goal is noble: to guarantee the right to "a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment" for every child no matter what the child's physical, emotional, or mental disability. But in practice this law has made it virtually impossible to remove chronically disruptive and dangerously violent children from the classroom. Special Education classes today contain not only physically handicapped children but also many with vague "learning disabilities." Significant numbers are chronic disrupters, or even dangerous.

A central Florida boy who had repeatedly threatened to kill his assistant principal could only be suspended for a maximum of ten days. School officials in Orange County, California could not remove a child who hits, kicks, and bites his teachers and classmates; a federal court ruled that school officials must ...