Special Education in Public Schools
In America, every child is entitled, in fact, required to receive an education. Fortunately, through state funding, children can receive that education for free from public schools. What happens, though, when that money runs out? Someone is bound to suffer from that, and most recently it has been the Special Education department. These kids, for whatever reason, need special help from teachers that is often on a one on one basis. That in turn means a lot of teachers, meaning more money. Recently, Michigan schools have decreased funding to those programs, forcing the schools to integrate special needs students into mainstream academic classes with general population students. Doing this put the children, their peers, and the teachers all in a lose/lose situation; Special Education kids do not belong in mainstream academic classes. Some may feel that this is a good solution, and that it gives these children important interaction with the other areas in the school. This is true, but a Science or History class is not the place for them to get that interaction. It is necessary for a child with Down Syndrome or any other mental handicap to be able interact with other kids; however, they don't get to do that in academic classes. They
That, after all, is what America is all about, opportunity. With special needs students in their classes, mainstream students and teachers can suffer a great deal. What these kids need is to receive this interaction in non-academic, hands on classes. To place a special needs student into mainstream academic classes causes everyone to suffer and the education process to be tainted. So, not only does the teacher have a class of 28 talkative, rowdy and sometimes obnoxious high school students, they have one or two special needs kids who may not have a social skills or mind capacity to sit through a 55 minute class. While the teacher is helping the one or two students, the others a left without getting the attention that they may need. They need to learn their academic subjects with children like them and teachers who can make sure they are learning and understand what's going on around them. Committees need to gather and find ways to cut costs in other places, so that the student's education doesn't suffer. Instead of taking such a huge chunk out of one program, they need to even it out and take a little bit from everyone. They need to have their academic learning environment to be a low stressful and personal one. However, because of dwindling funds, school boards are forced to cut costs, and that is one of their ways to cut them. They need to be made to feel comfortable and able to learn; after all, they deserve just as much as anyone else to receive exactly the right type of education they need. Schools spend millions of dollars on new football fields, new computers every two years, and other expensive things that they could live without. They are forced to sit through classes that are extremely fast passed to them, even if the teacher does slow it down for them its not enough. Also, there is a potential for these kids to cause a real disruption in the class.
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