Opinion: Special Education Spending Merits Second Look

As cities and towns continue to struggle with the question of how to pay for their schools, a look at the explosion in spending on special education might be instructive. Legally and morally, children with disabilities are entitled to a "free, appropriate public education," and it's a given that in some cases the cost of providing such is going to be expensive. But while the cost of special education services approaches $2 billion a year in Massachusetts, the results have been mixed.

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