School Choice - FAIL

Discussion in 'Education' started by bclark, May 14, 2011.

  1. bclark

    bclark Well-Known Member

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    Our school is forced to spend over $250,000 to bus ONE CHILD to another district. This is a special needs student that is blind and non communicative. No amount of education money is going to ever make it so this kid won't be in a assisted living home when he grows up. I guess there is no limit to how much government money someone can waste. Meanwhile we are looking at laying off teachers. Sounds like a fair trade.
     
  2. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    This is ironically the same core debate as the dreaded death panels; I love hypocrisy.
     
  3. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    I don't know why we need to have a teacher for every disabled kid. We should be using our resources to hire teachers that will teach upper level classes. We are wasting a lot of money on having a teacher for everyone who has a disablility. These kids will never learn anything, and we should be focusing on smart kids who will come up with new ideas for the future.
     
  4. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    So 'kill off' education to those who are slow and focus our funds on the brightest? Sounds a bit like social Darwinism and eugenics..
     
  5. Revere

    Revere New Member

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    Not a school choice issue. It's an ADA issue.
     
  6. Clint Torres

    Clint Torres New Member

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    The question is not if it should be done or not, but why does it cost that much ($250K per year).
    If his only disability is lack of sight, that is outrageous. It can be done for 10K or less per year. I suspect there is a lot more going on, i.e, medical issues, sever cognitive disability, etc. This is a case for the Developmental Disabilities Division of that State.

    If blindness is the issue, you taxpayers are getting screwed royal by your state DOE.

    Often is the case where one Department within the state tries to push off a client/patient on another state taxpayer funded department. DOE vs DOH vs DHS. the one who gets the client is left providing very expensive taxpayer dollars untill the student reaches 21 and then is shifted to another Taxpayer funded system often the DHS or DOH. Who will provide ongoing taxpayer funded services for a lot less money than the DOE.
     
    sunnyside and (deleted member) like this.
  7. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    Yes. What are the slow kids going to do with an education that they can't remember? There are almost the same number of special education teachers in schools as there are regular teachers. Instead of having that many special education teachers, they should hire upper level teachers to teach the smart kids.
     
  8. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    I wonder if you know how much that statement clashes with everything else you've posted in this forum so far.
     
  9. Bender

    Bender New Member

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    Disabled people are never smart.
    [​IMG]
     
  10. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    Hawking is pretty stupid. He has no idea what he is talking about most of the time
     
  11. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    I've been posting that there were not enough upper level courses in school for a long time now.
     
  12. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    But that same philosophy clashes with other ideas you hold; like equality.
     
  13. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    It is equal. There should be only one special education teacher for a school of around 500. The money that is saved on special education can be spent on upper level classes.
     
  14. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    So an authority figure should then decide how many of each type of teacher are hired, regardless of demand?
     
  15. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    Let's say that there is one special education teacher for every 2 students. There should be about one special education teacher for every 10 students.
     
  16. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    But shouldn't the demand for teachers decide that? Special needs children require more care and attention, for example. If you want to look at it as you are; they're likely to die in a few years— and if they do survive, they're unlikely to be productive in society. But that's not exactly in-line with today's standards of ethics and morality.
     
  17. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    Why would they be likely to die in a few years? They wouldn't be productive in society anyway. They are a drain on society just like old people. That doesn't mean get rid of them all. I'm saying we need to use less resources teaching them how to be productive members of society when they never will be.
     
  18. Catch

    Catch Banned

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    Well, up until recently, most in these programs suffered from development problems; and those rarely live far into their lives. But onto the real stuff:

    So just like old people, we shouldn't put resources into them? Stop Medicare? Have the government tell hospitals not to admit the elderly? Waste of resources, right?

    I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate to be honest.
     
  19. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    I didn't say to stop putting resources into them, but to use less. We are using way too many resources for special education. We need to use less resources to save money. Think about the smart kids. They are bored to death in school learning the same stuff they have for years while they could be actually learning something. These kids are the ones who become scientists and doctors that are important to society.
     
  20. psgchisolm

    psgchisolm Banned

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    This right here just proved you should probably be one of those kids withe their own teacher and has 200K+ wasted on them.
     
  21. oldjar07

    oldjar07 Active Member

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    Maybe he's well past his prime. I don't know much about Hawking, but the things he has been saying lately are pretty stupid.
     
  22. sunnyside

    sunnyside Well-Known Member

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    First of all I agree with the other poster, what they heck are they doing that it costs $250,000K ? That's going to be over fourtheen hundred per school day, or roughly $175 per hour.

    If that's what teachers get paid for special ed kids, I sure screwed up going into electrophysics.

    Here's the thing, our society isn't just going to take them out back and shoot them. No, they stay in the government safety net.

    If you can so much as get them to where they can bag some groceries instead of being in a home, you've saved massive quantities of taxpayer money. Actaully, if you can just get them to where they can take a crap on their own you'll save a lot of taxpayer money compared to if they can't.

    Not that I don't support programs for the smart kids. Hmmmm still though, the best universities have notoriously crappy teachers. Not that they aren't smart, it's just that they're interested in their research and teaching is more of an annoyance. But it works because the smart and motivated kids will figure it out on their own and would rather they had the chance to get in on some top flight research after class.

    On that note, when I was in high school, if you got through all the math courses they tought, they'd pay for you to take the next one at a local university. Good deal.
     
  23. Clint Torres

    Clint Torres New Member

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    The issues discussed above lead me to believe the growth of public schools has grown to epic proportions such that they have more employees and programs that the taxpayer must flip the bill for.

    Do not confuse disabled physically with disabled mentally as the same thing. A person who is paralyzed still retains his cognitive functions. Where people with developmental disabilities have physical and intellectual challenges. Is that PC or what.

    Nevertheless, the failure of the government and the Department of Education (DOE), is evident that the DOE and it’s growth and spending of taxpayer dollars, is out of control.

    Also remember, that if the student has medical problems which require specialized treatment it will cost the taxpayer $250,000 per year or more to accommodate the individual and their family. This is a fact. I had 2 teenagers (out of 60 adults) in my case load that had annual budgets of over $250K per year each. The avg., was about $38K per year. This was for Developmental Disabilities Department of the state.

    If you think this is costing the taxpayer, wait till you feel the financial taxpayer stress of all the Autistic advocates breathing down the governments neck demanding more funding. Why, because this is the new fear trend the DOE will use to get funding for the DOE, their unions, and the public schools in your state.

    If you think your states are broke now, just see what happens in 2-3 years.

    You gotta ask yourself, is that individual living the quality of life of a person who makes $250,000 per year? If not, the money is being wasted.
     
  24. bclark

    bclark Well-Known Member

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    He is blind and autistic, and developmentally delayed.
     
  25. Clint Torres

    Clint Torres New Member

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    No matter if he is autistic or not, ask yourself this, Is that person living the life of a person who makes $250,000.00 per year. If not we should just give the family the money in a special trust for that blind person.

    As I stated before, If you think taxpayers waist money on few cases like this, wait till the autistic advocates and lobbyist flood the DOE and your state legislatures with proposal for more taxpayer funding for “Education”, and the special needs for their children. What are we to do hide behind a poster child? Halt more spending for their children? That will be the key issues in this years budget proposals in many US states.
     

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