It's the parents who seem "special"

New York City is on the hook for the cost of education for a special education student.

The United States Supreme Court this morning affirmed a lower court’s ruling that New York City must reimburse wealthy parents who sent their learning-disabled son to a private school before trying a program offered by the public schools.

Yes...this is not a large portion of the city's money. But this is unjust, as the full tuition used to pay for this child's 13 years of private education could surely have gone to a better cause. It isn't that I don't believe the city should reform their special education policies; many special ed. students do not get the proper attention. But this parent didn't even try public education , and on top of that, he himself is quite wealthy. So why should the city have to pay for his son when he has public school options that he doesn't try.

The city is constantly wasting money on things that are essentially useless to its students. This time though, they are pushed beyond their correct wish to save this money for better reasons.