Bryant: This should be 'the year of the exceptional child'

Representative Carolyn Crawford, R-Pass Christian, was beaming at the Capitol on Thursday after Governor Phil Bryant signed the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is expected to announce candidacy for president, was present to support the measure. The bill, passed by the legislature this year, will provide vouchers for parents of children with special needs to spend $6,500 a year in public money on private schools and services. It will cover 500 students the first year, and then add 500 a year for five years.

Crawford, whose daughter Emily has special needs, said she knows all too well the hardships that parents of these exceptional children encounter, and that it had been a two-year battle on the way to this day.

"This is an awesome day. To be able to work on something for two years and actually see it come to pass and become law, I think it's a new step in a forward direction," she said. "The movement in Mississippi to look at our vulnerable children and know they can become productive citizens."

Crawford helped spearhead the measure, along with Sen. Nancy Collins, R-Tupelo, and Mississippi First Lady Deborah Bryant.

Gov. Bryant pointed out that under the current system, only 22.5 percent of the state's 66,000 special needs children will graduate from high school, but that the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act starts to turn that tide.

"So many things we do in this building fade away into the next year and the years that follow," he said. "This will last lifetimes for children and parents and grandparents who know that this bill allows them to take their child to whatever school will serve them best, to throw open those gates and say, 'You have a choice for that child you have fought so hard for.'"

Supporters of the bill say state public education is failing children with special needs and parents need options such as the private school vouchers. Opponents have said it will strip money from an already underfunded public education system and will not help address the problems with special education.

Bush became governor of Florida when the state was 50th in education. He said he learned about the plight of special needs children when a mother asked him what he could do for her child. He told her, "I don't know but I'll find out. If you'll take me as a student for three or four days this month, I will learn."

What he learned, he said, is that special needs children should receive much more care and attention than they're getting.

"Families of children who struggle like this, not just at school but across the board in every day life, should be in the front of the line. They should be empowered to take care of their children," Bush said. "They should be empowered particularly when it comes to education, to be able to make sure their children get the kind of education that allows them to rise up as well."

Bryant said the amount of work and heart that went into bringing the bill to pass is unique in its own right.

"After we have worked so hard with this great team of legislators have worked so hard, this should be the year of the exceptional child in Mississippi," he said.