May 23, 2018, North Berwick, ME, Fosters.com: MSAD 60 budget up 5.6% http://www.fosters.com/news/20180523/msad-60-budget-up-56 The School Administrative District 60 Board on Monday passed its budget for the 2018-19 school year, which will mean a higher-than-usual 5.6 percent increase over the previous year. … The upcoming school year’s budget was passed at $41,516,414, up from $39,825,820, an increase of $1,690,594. The largest line-item increases in the 2018-2019 budget compared to last year’s included an additional $685,538 in regular instruction, $348,714 in special education and $364,100 for student and staff support. … Connolly said the significant cost drivers for the upcoming year’s budget are special-ed staffing. Connolly said the district’s special-ed population has risen 9 percent, and the district is expecting 40 incoming kindergarten students who will need special-ed support of different kinds. Connolly said the staffing increases added $545,000 to the budget, which added to both the special-ed and student and staffing support line items. …
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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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