Check out this absolutely bizarre story in the Times Union about plans that are underway in the Troy school district to cut special education spending by $500,000 a year.

If you believe what is in the story, the school district has been quietly under pressure from the state Education Department for several years for steering way too many kids into special education.

Of the 3,350 students in the Albany-area district, more than 900 are classified as special ed, or more than 20% of the student population. The average placement for a district like Troy is 11%.

A consultant hired by the district has even determined that there is some sort of racial steering going on - with far too many white kids being labeled as LD (learning disabled) and ADD (attention deficit disorder), and far too many black kids being labeled as ED (emotionally disabled.)

But if you read between the lines of the story, you'll see the decision to try to gain control of the situation is not happening because the state suddenly started holding the grownups who run the Troy schools accountable for accurately placing their students. No, like most everything else in education politics, this is about money. The system was spending approximately 46% more on special education than similar districts and simply couldn't keep doing it.

So now you've got this big pool of special ed kids - some who absolutely need to be placed where they are, and some who apparently don't need to be there - who will be impacted by drastic cuts in special ed services in Troy. And the cuts, the way it sounds from the story, don't seem to be driven by the needs of the students, but rather the needs of the district's budget people to help balance the books.

Does this sound like a situation where the district can be trusted to do what is best for each student under its charge? Will some kids who need services get caught up in the pool of kids who are being denied services? Can you imagine what would happen if a charter school came out and admitted it was going to base special education placements and services on the line item amount it wished to spend rather than the specific needs of the student?