April 13, 2017, Toronto Star: Province boosts education funding to $24B for next school year https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2017/04/13/province-boosts-education-funding-to-24b-for-next-school-year.html Ontario is increasing education spending by almost 4 per cent to $23.8 billion in the next school year, with a focus on providing more special education support and reducing class sizes, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter announced Wednesday. … The education funding includes money to hire hundreds more special education teachers and support workers based on local need, and capping class sizes in full-day kindergarten as well as grades 4 through 8.… A 2015 People for Education survey found four out of five boards pay more for special education than they get from the province, and the strain is something the group hears about regularly from principals. … The province “has made good on its commitment” during negotiations to increase special ed funding and allow school boards and unions to work together to allocate it based on local needs, Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said in a statement. But “there is still much work to be done to provide sufficient funding and resources for children with special needs,” added Hammond, whose union earlier this year raised the issue of increasing school violence linked to the shortage of support for children with behavioural and mental health issues.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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