After Inauguration Day, news outlets across the country commented on disability representation during the inauguration and the new presidential administration’s focus on accessibility. For example, Parents Magazine wrote, “As Joe Biden stepped into the highest office in the U.S., children with speech disabilities could see themselves achieving any goals they set their minds to reach.” Similar comments were made about Amanda Gorman, the young woman named National Poet Laureate who recited her poem at the inauguration and then again this past weekend at the Super Bowl. And like Biden, Amanda Gorman also overcame a stutter as a young girl. But what many of these new features did not point out was the support and the unique school communities that helped these successful people reach their goals. We too hope that accessibility is a high priority for the Biden administration, but accessibility should include access to the schools that best fit a child’s needs.
Let me explain. Both Biden and Gorman graduated from highly celebrated private schools. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal,
During a 2013 visit to his alma mater, Archmere Academy in Wilmington, Del., [Biden] credited the school with making him the man he is today. With the help of Archmere’s priests and nuns, he said, he overcame a stutter that had left him with cruel nicknames such as “Joe Impedimenta.” “I owe Archmere so much,” he told the students.
Likewise, Amanda Gorman not only attended a private school with an 11-1 student ratio, but New Roads writes that its mission is:
An authentically diverse community reflective of Los Angeles, New Roads prepares young people for life by developing in them a personal dedication to learning, a respect for independent thinking, an expanding curiosity about the world and its people, and a commitment to the common good.
With a mission like that, it certainly sounds like students are receiving lots of individualized attention. In other words, it’s likely that Gorman’s experience was far from a “normal” educational experience.
Not that there's anything wrong with these experiences, but this type of educational atmosphere is not available to the typical student with disabilities. Archmere Academy costs around $29,700 a year while New Roads’ price tag comes in at just under $50,000 a year (not including student activity fees). Without options, many children with disabilities are stuck in schools where they are one of many students following their IEP. Perhaps they will receive the same care and attention President Biden described of his alma mater, but statistics suggest this is highly unlikely, especially in a pandemic. Maybe even more frustrating is research on poverty and how it negatively affects language development. Children in low-income communities, especially those with special needs, have the deck stacked against them in so many ways.
We certainly want to celebrate the inclusion that President Biden represented at the inauguration, and we applaud President Joe Biden and Amanda Gorman for all they have overcome. But in the months that follow, President Biden’s education policy will be the real test of inclusion.