If you are looking for reasons for the stress experienced by public school budgets, look no farther than special education. That’s the requirement imposed by the federal government and the courts involving students with specific physical, emotional and academic handicaps. These mandates have grown over time to the point where, in San Mateo County at least, the dollars involved are huge. Unfortunately, though the feds have laid down the law in this matter, they haven’t fully-funded it. Their responsiblities have been allowed to slide. Today, according to the County Office of Education’s Jean Holbrook, the Peninsula’s 23 public school districts have been forced to make up for $62 million in special education financing out of their general fund budgets. That’s cash that won’t be used to educate the bulk of the total student body that numbers close to 90,000 youngsters in grades kindergarten through 12. Combined, all district budgets came to just over $738 million in actual expenditures in 2006-07, according to the California state Department of Education. So, to put it another way, for every $12 spent on local schools, $1 goes to special education. And the situation shows no signs of being alleviated anytime soon.