Are public schools everywhere in the US getting bad post-pandemic?
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Anonymous
When these laws were created, people were thinking about dyslexia and kids in wheelchairs. They weren’t thinking about integrating kids who disrupt learning for all the other kids and give them PTSD from enduring classes with them every day. The laws need to be clarified. What people call a “disability” these days simply isn’t what people had in mind when they supported these laws. They would never have passed in this format if people knew that kids would be screaming in class and throwing chairs and there’d be literally nothing that anyone could do about it. |
Anonymous
And most parents raising those kids WANT their kids out of gen ed and in more specialized placements. They are gaslighted and told it is "too expensive" or "we need more data to justify it." I suspect there are very few on either side that like what the law has become. |
Anonymous
Yes. I also remember school being a magical place. I also remember that some kids got As, some got Bs, some got Cs, and some got Ds. You knew if you were an A or B student, you would go to college. You didn't stress out too much about which one. The C and D students were encouraged to take up a trade or go to community college. It was NORMAL. Now, we're pretending that everyone is or should be an A student, and pretending that everyone should go to college. I think this is part of what has wrecked everything. |
Anonymous
You're right that outcomes don't have to be the same. Please show where I said that? Everything else past that demonstrate a shocking lack of understanding of IDEA, ADA, and associated precedents. Nothing caps accomodation costs at twice the cost of students/employees/customers that do not have disabilities. And it's quite common that they do so, making it very hard to later claim that that they're unreasonable. No judge or jury is going to let schools force students with special needs to virtual or home programs. I understand you don't like to pay taxes, but this is reality. If you don't think violent and disruptive kids are being properly supporte and accomodated at schools, and think it is important to address that for the sake of the other kids in public schools, you're going to have to be willing to pay for better supports and accomodations. But oddly, you seem more interested in making things worse for kids with special needs than you are making things better for students and teachers. And that's why your rants will never amount to anything. |
Anonymous
| Actually, kids who got Cs and Ds also went to college. My brother went to Penn State in Altoona with quite a few Cs and maybe Ds too. Back then, Cs weren't unusual. It meant that you met the standard. Now, an A means you met the standard. That's why there are so many kids with straight As. That was unusual back then. Add in retakes and it's now unusual to be getting Cs and Ds in public school. |
Anonymous
Yes, they were. IDEA isn't that old. But they expected that schools would procide appropriate supports a services, generally first in gen ed classrooms while escalating to self-contained environments when necessary. That's where this fell apart. Schools and communities don't want to appropriately fund special education. So schools make this the gen-ed teachers' problems, knowing that it is effectively impossible for parents to win due process complaints under IDEA seeking more services. |
Anonymous
| All this bickering over juvenile criminal behavior and gross disruptions being allowed in public school is the death of public school. |
Anonymous
| We live in America. Schools were tsh before the pandemic. It's called poverty and lack of proper funding to give working families stability for proper child development. Moreover, college is a super expensive gamble that hurts more people than it helps debt-wise. |
Anonymous
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-Get rid of the computers and bring back books.
-Have different classes based on kid academic strength. It's burning teachers out when they have 10 different levels of students in one class. -Discipline for misbehaving students. -Separate schools for extreme violent student behavior. |
Anonymous
| I truly feel like schools are now taught to the lowest common denominator in every classroom. (My kids are not geniuses, so I'm not talking about mine) Gifted kids should have special classes and increased supports. We need the truly bright kids to be able to shine for the sake of society. Instead the whole class is focused on Johnny who is still leaning his ABCs. |
Anonymous
NP. I think you'd be wrong. The poorly behaved kids' parents do not want their kids out of these classes. They don't think their kid has a problem. They are upset that school is not handling their kids' violent outbursts. I think in general society doesn't know what to do with these kids. They aren't special needs or disabled. A lot of them just have bad home environments, suffer physical abuse at home and have zero attention given to them. What they need likely is military school where they live at the school with caring people. My neighbor's daughter went to one such school, but I'm pretty sure my neighbor had to pay $$$. |
Anonymous
So how much money is necessary to “appropriately fund special education” in your opinion? Let’s say an average normal student costs $8k to educate per year. How much more do you think taxpayers should be forced to pay for whatever you feel is owed to you as the parent of a kid with a special needs label? |
Anonymous
Responses I have heard from parents: “He doesn’t do that at home. What are you doing wrong?” (Kid likely does whatever they want at home.) “He should be in the regular classrooms.” (parents in denial) “He is bored because you are not challenging him.” (Kid does no work and distracts others.) “He doesn’t care about grades. He’s your problem. Why are you calling me?” “You are the 5th teacher to call me today. It’s getting annoying.” “Call his dad. They handle this stuff.” Etc. |
Anonymous
| Schools cannot make up for institutional poverty and parental neglect and lack of educational support in the home. Decades ago, they suspended and expelled disruptive students. Issues arose when the standard for disruptive was racist in some places and same behaviors in black boys got them suspended and in white boys, written off and ignored. The pendulum has swung too far into allowing everything for fear of discrimination. During the pandemic so many issues were revealed and since most of the teachers are women, many had to stay home with their own children and don't come back as well. |
Anonymous
| Hot take: I think folks with kids who require more attention should pay more for the services. The line doesn't necessarily divide down special needs or not of course. Because there are plenty of special needs students who are lovely and cooperative, yes the class room needs are different from a general population for some things but not all - if we taught civics still, gym, art, music can be combined levels. Then you differentiate for the core subjects grouping students based on their needs and learning styles fortes acknowledging that some kids are brilliant, while others maybe just need a much slower pace and diff expectations. But ultimately if your kid is disruptive enough to require additional teacher resources, you pay more. The end. |