Jan 25, 2019, EDITORIAL Seattle Times: Special education funding should be Legislature’s top priority https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/special-education-funding-should-be-legislatures-top-priority/ Special education should be considered basic education. The state has a constitutional obligation to cover basic education with state dollars. Shortchanging school districts and the children they educate is just wrong. Washington lawmakers are acting like they don’t understand the urgency of special education funding gaps. No more hearings or studies or debates are needed. Washington has clearly underfunded special education services, and the Legislature must fix this immediately. Voters need a clear signal as many are being asked to approve local levies next month to pay for the state’s irresponsible shortfall. Lawmakers need immediately to change funding formulas and pledge — in stone or as close to it as possible — more money for special education before diving into new business. On Wednesday, the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee heard stark testimony from school districts around the state. With the state not giving them enough money to pay for special education, many district officials say they have no choice but to ask local voters to pay the difference with their property tax bills…. The problem has been defined by school districts and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Superintendent Chris Reykdal, last year, called for the Legislature to add $160 million to the state budget for special education. Yet, lawmakers added just $26.9 million for the 2018-19 school year. …
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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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