ABSTRACT
Universal public education has always been a difficult, challenging matter (Urban and Wagoner, 2009; Wagoner, 2004). From the days of the founding fathers to the present, educating the masses—the general education offered to all—has presented problems peculiar to the era in which it was to be implemented. When education was offered only to the elite, and when general education excluded those who were thought not to be able to benefit from it, the education of children with disabilities was not a pressing public issue. However, as education became more literally universal, special education for those at the statistical margins of ability became a necessary consideration.
