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In reply to the discussion: Schools must provide sports for disabled, US says [View all]glowing
(12,233 posts)On a small town school board and living in VT where the entire towns budget is posted and voted on, I get where money/ student is spent and I can tell you that special needs kids do have a larger budget (and I'm not saying that they shouldn't, but the reality is that in our small town, the girl with cerabal palsy was extremely expensive on the budget from 5-21 and yes 21 is the last yr in VT that the state is responsible for educating anyone thru mandatory laws). Her special needs helper had to be trained in nursing care and transportation costs to transport in a rural area (20 - 40 mins to a school) were extremely expensive.
I still think the best way to fund education would be more like we do with our military force, the Federal Govt pays for the school, teachers/ staff support pay checks, healthcare, retirement, and extra curricular and after school programs, along with transportation. Take the school boards out of commission (they are not a good fit for the modern learning world because of their political agendas in larger areas). And the Dept of Ed curriculum is decided upon by teachers input (the real professionals who know what they are doing), instead of the Arme Duncan's.
The thing is that for smaller towns and rural areas, sports programs are already taking cuts OR being made into an enterprise which leads to bs like in OH of a culture of protecting football players from heinous crimes.
All it's going to take to shut every child out of sports is a parent with a special needs not being able to participate in a practical manner and then the only thing the town can do is to shut it all down for everyone to keep from paying out of a lawsuit.
Like I said, it's a great idea, but mandating this rule on cash strapped schools is hard to do unless the Federal Govt is going to pony up the money... And I'm not holding my breath for the Republican Congress to actually do anything (they still think teachers make too much and their Wall St cronies deserve outlandish bonuses).