Special education in the United States has evolved from institutional and segregated environments to inclusion in the regular education classrooms. We examine how the practice has affected all students and question whether this change has created equal opportunity for those students without special education needs.

This book researches and reports on issues of current practice: e.g., teacher preparation, placement of students with special needs, implications for the average and above in the classroom and the financial costs driving placement decisions in the education system.
We examine the lowering of standards so all can pass tests, report on loss of engagement of students by middle school, and mourn the squandering of creativity to appease a mandate.

Sir Ken Robinson relates that, "Education is meant to take us into a future we cannot even grasp." Yet we continue on a road that lowers our educational ranking internationally.

We recommend to provide services for all students, and take the system from its current state to one that provides a "Free and appropriate education for all!"