Feb 2, 2019, Fredericksburg (VA) Lance-Star: Stafford and Spotsylvania school superintendents present budget requests https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/education/stafford-and-spotsylvania-school-superintendents-present-budget-requests/article_2b45c4e1-6742-54b9-b305-13108a47d2f2.html School budget season began last week as the superintendents of Stafford County and Spotsylvania County public schools presented their proposed budgets for fiscal year 2020, which begins July 1. Stafford Superintendent Scott Kizner, who started in the position this summer, presented a $308.2 million operating budget to the School Board. It proposes an increase of $18 million, or 6.4 percent, over the current fiscal year's budget. It asks Stafford County to contribute $128.8 million in local funding, an increase of $7.9 million. Spotsylvania Superintendent Scott Baker's total proposed operating budget is $302.1 million. It recommends requesting $140.8 million in local funding, $12.3 million more than the FY19 contribution. … The Virginia House of Delegates plans to include a 5 percent raise for teachers, to take effect over two years. Gov. Ralph Northam's proposed budget also included the raise, as well as funding for additional school counselors. … Kizner's budget also requests 17 new full-time guidance counselors, spread out over all grade levels, and 33 new positions in special education to support a consistently growing population of students with physical, emotional and learning disabilities. … It includes a $7.9 million investment in school and student support staffing, requesting funding for 14 new school counselors, 10 English as a second language teachers, 18 special education teachers, 14 social workers, 24 general education teachers and seven security officers for middle schools. … The Spotsylvania budget presentation shows that enrollment has declined since 2008, from 24,197 to 23,674. … As in Stafford, Spotsylvania schools have seen an increase in the number of enrolled students who have disabilities and those who are English learners. Baker stressed that fewer total students does not mean less money is needed. "There has been a sharp increase in students with disabilities, the high-intensity need population," he said. "And that places a significant need on the locality to support."… "The budget must reflect the needs of our students today, not our students 10 or 20 years ago," he said. …
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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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