I READ the July 11 Money & Careers article “For prospective teachers, lesson in supply, demand highlights special needs" with great sadness. The trend damages our education system.
The way to improve special education is to improve regular education. The better regular ed is, the less special ed we need.
Instead of adding special ed teachers, we should add regular education teachers, especially in early grades, so that we can teach students how to read, write, and do math. If we did that, many students currently labeled as learning disabled would not be, and would not need special education. This wrong-way hiring trend is a bad sign for students with disabilities, other students, and the country.
We cannot continue to expand the special education entitlement program and expect to improve results for all students. It won’t happen.
Miriam Kurtzig Freedman,
Boston 
