Obama on Autism and special ed funding

[HelenWheels]

It's on the political video thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x275809

[endersdragon34]

1. This is where my hatred of Duncan comes into play

Anyone who promotes a guy to the highest education position in America who cut 26.5 million from the special education budget in his last post (lying about a budget deficit in the process) can't be all that autism friendly (this coming from an aspie who used to work in at a disability rights organization in Chicago). I hope he proves me wrong, I got a good letter from Tom Harkin (the one who wrote IDEA) suggesting he will. Beyond that, he seems to be to doing too much work to cure us... for those of us who don't want to be cured or have our future generation cured (being an aspie I can certainly say this a lot easier, if I was a parent of a LFA kid I can understand the desire for a cure) it makes me harder to go along with him. Of course neurodiversity hasn't quite made it quite to our politicians yet, heres to hoping Obama will actually listen to us.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Duncan in Chicago

turned the high schools into military academies.

I am not holding out much hope for this guy.

[endersdragon34]

3. I don't mind military academys much either :-/

Personally I don't mind military academys all that much, at least of the high school level. I have known many kids that have benefitted from JROTC, and many kids that could probably benefit from a military academy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. At EVERY school?

What about kids like mine who had no interest in the military?

[endersdragon34]

5. Uhhh... JROTC is voluntary as are military academies

No one will make your kids join, heck generally speaking there is no pressure to join (far more pressure will be put on your kid to go straight into the military through incessant phone calls). At my old school the only ones who joined were kids with problems in their background (once again completely voluntarily, other then maybe parental pressure) and kids who knew they were going into the military straight out of high school. Beyond that the idea that every school will become a military academy is pretty funny. Now I can see you being anti-military, but the fact is many want to join the armed forces, this gives them a leg up on the competition, and I really don't see the problem with that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I have a huge problem with it

I also teach in an urban system. To target our poorest kids, whose opportunities are limited, with the enticement of a glamorous military career is irresponsible. We should limit the access military recruiters have to our kids, not expand them. They are not honest with our kids.

Just one of many references:
"Last year, ABC News armed a group of high school students with hidden cameras and sent them into ten Army recruiting stations in in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, posing as potential applicants. Sadly, the Army failed this particular recruiting ethics test. More than half of the recruiters were caught on tape making what can only be kindly referred to as "misleading" statements. In other words, they lied."
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/recruiterlies.htm

Why did Duncan not place college recruiters in these schools? Or employers? Why give these kids only one choice?

I also beg to differ this is 'voluntary'.

[endersdragon34]

9. College recruiters and employers were in these schools....

Most of these schools still did things like Junior Acheivement to teach these kids business sense. Almost no schools have other employers visit them on a regular basis (at least not at the high school level, major employers want those with a college education). Many of these schools still had college recruiters come visit them, and many of them encouraged higher education to any students that were capable of it, in fact many of the charter schools everyone seems to hate here were designed to be college prepatory schools for the kids on south/west side of Chicago. Now let us not pretend that every kid on south/west side chicago will be moved by all this instruction. And military recruiters have tons of access to get kids to join anyway, JROTC has nothing to do with that. At any school I have ever been at with a JROTC program there is no pressure whatsoever to join. It was just for those who knew they were already going to join the military. Now I agree we need more honest recruiting measures, but we can get that without doing away with JROTC programs.

[sally jo]

10. The problem is that they tend to set up these schools in areas with lots of

working class families and minorities. People who already are vulnerable because they may not have the same funds and/or academic achievements to secure college automatically.

[Dinger]

7. That Speech Last Night (On Education) Sucked

Charter schools my ass. Fuck that & fuck duncan. Merit pay too. As if all the problems a child has are the fault of the teacher, and the results as well. Obama had a rather accusatory tone towards schools and teachers. Let's start with equal accountability and funding for ALL schools, and if you get one red cent from the government, you have the same accountability as public schools. Obama also said he wanted to expand charter schools. I say at what expense to public education? I'm not happy about this speech, and neither are many of my colleagues. Shit, I'm about to go on a helluva rant; I better stop while I'm behind.

[endersdragon34]

8. Going to repost this about charter schools

Subject: Going to try reposting this about charter schools
Message:
I do get part of the problem but to say get rid of all charter schools (which the federal government doesn't even have the power to do, and you could expect a lot of backlash if they even tried) is really extreme. I myself have Asperger's Syndrome, so I know how ****ed up (pardon my French) public schools can be and (from experience working with other "disabled" kids) frequently are. For many parents this leaves a few options, keep in the horrible endless cycle that is public schools (I can offer a few examples there if you wish, check out http://autismonthego.com / for starters), pay huge dollars for special education (can go all the way up to $30,000 or more in some areas) assuming its avaible, homeschool them in areas which thats possible (so not incredibly liberal states like CA) and you have the time and resources to devote to it, or go to one of a few charter schools in America that are starting to pop up (I think theres like 10 outside of CA in all the United States) where he can get a decent education and not have to sell the house or give up your career to get it. Is that not the ideal solution and shouldn't schools like those be encouraged?

Beyond that as someone who was incredibly gifted in the areas of mathmatics (and advanced in the areas of English) I have seen how schools also fail gifted kids. There seems to much of a movement in America that 'everyones special' (which to quote Dash, "thats's just another way of saying no one is") that encouraging true giftedness is something that we don't really want to put too many resources in. Because of my giftedness, school quickly became a place for boredom. I was ready for geometry instruction by... lets just say the end of 4th grade (probably a bit behind but lets go with it), do you think I got it? No of course not instead I got to learn long division which I knew how to do since the beginning of 2nd grade. Yeah teaching classmates can help with some things, but not everything, especially in the area of math (no amount of teaching your classmates how to do multiplication can help you learn geometry)

If school is a place of learning, I think seperate schools that encourage giftedness and accept differences are also neccessary, and something normal public schools don't and frequently can't do. If schools are a place of boredom and torture, by all means go along with the current system.

[LWolf]

11. Rant away.

Strong, vocal opposition is crucial.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Norma Druid]

12. Autism and Education

I just sent this to Obama and Biden and would have sent it to Arne Duncan except he doesn´t seem to have an email address. This is just a short rant - pass it around where it will do some good. Thanks!

A significant school population will be adversely affected by the proposed education policy of rigid standards. This group is autistic children, now one in every 150 births, most of them male. Judging by the public reaction to Michael Savage´s radio rant about autism, most people now believe in the validity of the illness - they just don´t want to deal with it.
Charter schools, even those run by charities, do not want to be bothered and can choose not to be bothered. My autistic grandson was sent packing back to his zoned public school despite beyond grade level reading and math skills. The No Child Left Behind provision that all test scores reflect on the whole school makes this situation infinitely worse.
Please find a way to fund one public school (or one section of a larger campus) to meet the needs of this unfortunately growing population and those with other mental health and cognitive problems. Their test scores should not be counted with those of normal children. Private groups would undoubtedly provide extra funds so long as they do not actually have to administer the program.
Educating these children is a sound investment. Some, like Temple Grandin who designed most of the cattle handling equipment in this country, are geniuses. Most can become productive and taxpaying citizens at some level. Above all, they are vulnerable human beings who shouldn´t be sacrificed on the altar of Standards.