The story appeared on the front page of the  New York Times because of the tax consequences for New Yorkers.  But there would be no story had it not been for Tom Freston, the former CEO of Viacom.

Tom Freston has a learning-disabled son.  He placed his son in a private school because the public school offered no program for him.  Every child, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), is entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE).  This isn’t easy to get with a non-disabled child.  It’s a lot harder for those children who are given the option of being the class pet in an inclusion setting or left to knit pot-holders in a self-contained class.  One size fits all doesn’t work well for learning-disabled kids.

So Tom Freston sought reimbursement for the Stephen Gaynor School from the City of New York and was refused, because he hadn’t given the public school a chance to teach his child.  Therefore, the argument went, he could not say that the school was unable to provide a FAPE.  After all, without giving the school a chance, it was unfair to simply discount them, right?

But this argument, while better applied to a 30 day free trial of a toaster, doesn’t work well with living, breathing children.  First, while trying the public school on for size, harm happens.  Learning disabled children are subjected to the stigmatization and, unfortunately far too often, abuse that comes with being different. 

Second, children continue to grow up during the time that they spend giving the public school’s a chance.  They don’t get to go back and be 7 years old for a second time.  A year lost to a child is a big deal.  A year lost to a learning disabled child can be devastating.  These are critical developmental periods.  Once lost, they are gone forever and can never be recaptured, no matter what school administrators would prefer.

Third, the requisite needs of a child with a diagnosed learning disability is not nearly as mysterious as school administrators would have us believe.  Their tendency to lump children with wildly disparate needs into the same pigeonhole is a matter of necessity.  Public schools cannot provide the level of specific attention that would serve to educate each individual child with their individual learning disability.  Most administrators actually know this, but can pretend they don’t because most of the public has no idea about the educational needs of learning disabled students and can be successfully lied to at will.

So why do we owe a heartfelt thanks to Tom Freston?  Because he had the wherewithal to pursue the litigation in his son’s case, Tom F.  Having won in the Second Circuit the right to reimbursement despite not giving the public school a shot before heading to Gaynor, the Supreme Court tied 4-4 on the case, with Justice Kennedy recusing himself. 

Here’s the point.  Who other than a former CEO of Viacom could press this suit to the Supreme Court?  Most parents of LD kids struggle to provide for their basic needs.  It is not inexpensive to pay for top quality therapy (as opposed to the loosey-goosey stuff that passes for therapy at many schools).  But for people like Tom Freston, the only side with enough juice to fight its way to the top are the school districts, because they are living off the never-ending stream of tax dollars.

Rather than question why someone as wealthy as Tom Freston would expect tuition reimbursement for the education of his son, consider that he too pays his taxes and is entitled to the services that society claims to provide.  Because of his wealth, untold numbers of parents who lack the wherewithal to make the challenge will benefit from an interpretation of the IDEA that does not require a parent to watch in silence as his or her child suffers death by a thousand knives while waiting to prove that the public school cannot possibly provide a FAPE.

And if you think the cost of providing an education to LD children is expensive now, wait until you find out the cost of supporting uneducated LD adults who could have been contributing members of society but for the failure of schools to be able to teach them.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and we stand to be crushed under the weight of our educational system’s shocking neglect of learning disabled students.

So thank you, Tom Freston.  Your efforts are greatly appreciated.