June 22, 2019, Sharon (PA) Herald: Sharon board votes to raise taxes https://www.sharonherald.com/news/local_news/sharon-board-votes-to-raise-taxes/article_a579faa8-9495-11e9-ba8e-bfbded5ff9ef.html Sharon City School District board passed a 2019-20 budget that calls for spending $38 million with a 2.78-mill tax hike and using $3.2 million from its fund balance. “We have a pretty significant deficit,” Superintendent Michael Calla said. “Our goal will be to hold the line on spending during the year so that we do not have to use that amount from the fund balance.” BUDGET AT A GLANCE The 2019-20 Sharon schools budget of $38,254,500 (36,425,465) at a glance (2018-19 in parenthesis) SPENDING • Instruction – $23,160,200 ($22,036,640) » Regular programs – $15,598,000 ($15,082,145) » Special education – $6,972,500 ($6,515,720) » Support Services – $9,034,800 ($8,788,975)… Calla said a significant portion of its budget goes to pay cyber or charter school tuition outside the district for students who live in Sharon. “The largest chunk for us is we pay over $3 million dollars in cyber and charter school tuition,” Calla said. “I don’t think most people realize the taxpayer is paying for cyber or charter school. It is free for the family but the school district the child comes from is paying full freight for that child.” Special education costs consume a significant portion of the budget, Calla said. “This past year, we enrolled over 100 students who came to us as already identified special education students, so our budget has to absorb that,” Calla said. “One of the features of the budget is to add one to two more staff members to accommodate students with special needs.”…
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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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