In our district we get exactly 4,609 per student.
With that money you must pay a teacher, support that teacher with some administrators- in our district administration has been cut so severely that our four vice principals do counseling (because the counselors are gone), discipline, scheduling and everything else. When I was in school in the 70's we had vocational AND college counselors- and they were good at their jobs. Those people are gone.
On top of that people who are not informed about education might want to remember that special ed support is very expensive but MANDATED by the federal government (though it is not fully funded by the federal government- it is, in fact, dramatically underfunded). At my high school, for example, there are 6 classes of special day classes, for the mild or moderately retarded, autistic, or otherwise disabled. These classes are small (by law) and there must be an adult for ever 6 children (that's the law- and believe me, if you have worked with these students you would know it makes sense, Since most people avoid the retarded, and severely disabled, they would have no idea what it takes to teach them life skills). On top of that we have several resource teachers who are working with mainstreamed children (students with disabilities attending regular classes). Again the LRE (least restrictive environment) is a legal requirement (and I might add that it has nothing to do with the teacher's union :-)
Sad that ignorant people want to blame the teacher's union when they obviously don't understand the school system at all. But I wouldn't waste your time on this Cos. People aren't here to take in information.
On the off chance someone curious wanders by, the facts and figures in my post are accurate as of this budget cycle in our district. We are in a white/hispanic district, with a large middle class. Poor districts are disproportionately burdened with special education students, and behavior problems- so they do end up spending more money. I doubt they have the best administrators and school boards either- none of which has anything to do with the teacher's unions.
People who want to blame some symbolic bete noir, rather than looking at a problem rationally are worthless conversationalists. I KNOW you know this. :-) Now move along. |
