Jan 10, 2019, Northampton, MA, Daily Hampshire Gazette: New effort launched to change Massachusetts’ education funding priorities https://www.gazettenet.com/New-effort-launched-to-change-education-funding-priorities-22686127 The question of how to best distribute state education dollars is emerging as a top issue in Massachusetts’ new legislative session, as mayors, lawmakers and educational advocates pressed Wednesday for increased funding for public schools, especially in poorer communities. The renewed effort comes months after the breakdown of negotiations between the House and Senate on the subject and as legislators try to narrow the educational achievement gap between students from richer and poorer areas. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, in his recent inaugural address, also said he would propose revisions to the state’s formula for distributing billions to school districts each year. The 25-year-old formula created under a major education reform law is now widely viewed as outdated…. The bill filed on Monday would implement key recommendations from a 2015 commission that examined the original formula, intended to guarantee that all school districts — regardless of size and income variations — could deliver quality education to its pupils. The formula, the commission said, did not properly account for the growing number of English-language learners and students requiring special education, along with rising health care costs for school districts. The result was a $1 billion to $2 billion annual shortfall in education funding. …
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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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