Feb 25, 2019, KSTP TV, Minneapolis, MN: New special education funding formula surprises school districts https://kstp.com/politics/new-special-education-funding-formula-surprises-school-districts/5258690/ Public school funding in Minnesota seems to be a vexing problem every year in Minnesota and 2019 is no exception. This year, many school districts are being caught by surprise because of a special education funding formula passed in 2016 that is just now going into effect. … Devine says his district needs to cut $1.26 million from its general fund budget to pay for special education services. This comes just over a year after Waconia voters approved a new operating levy of $525 per student to help pay its expenses. Now the district has to figure out how to pay special education "cross subsidies" from the general fund that have risen from $687 per student in 2015 to a projected $1,210 in 2019. … Waconia isn't the only district dealing with a gap when it comes to funding special education. The Department of Education tracks "cross-subsidies" across Minnesota which is defined as the difference between the cost to provide special education and the money the district receives from the state and federal government to pay for it.
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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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