In recent years, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has attempted to implement free-market reforms to its special-education program, closely following the strategy that then–Secretary of Education Arne Duncan laid out at the 2013 IDEA Leadership Conference. Combining flag-waving with finger-wagging, Duncan argued that reform built on data, technology, and school turnarounds will help the United States achieve prosperity in a “globally competitive economy” and “win the future, as President Obama has challenged us.”

But CPS’s attacks on special education have demonstrated what Duncan’s vision really looks like: overcrowded classrooms, students left behind, and policies that violate federal law.

Katie Osgood, who teaches special education to third and fourth graders on Chicago’s South Side, explained what kind of future we’re “winning” and what kind of schools special-education students deserve.