This 'tongue in Cheek' essay by Lenny Isenberg who has chronicled the decline of LAUSD, offers a look at what is being done to 'lower the cost' of education' in LAUSD. In it he describes the reality of this 'full inclusion' plan,'
A large percentage of the expenses are related to teachers and they are unfairly held out as the major problem. Their hands are tied. They are more accurately, the scapegoats.Special Education takes a lot of the blame, since Sp. Ed. classes are smaller, have more assistants and bring down a schools most important. concern--test scores. To counter this, LAUSD now has a program. called "Full Inclusion," where Sp. Ed. classes are eliminated and the students are included into a regular classroom with a general ed. teacher (who may not have any training withthis population), little or no aides and a lot more students. The justification for this is to "socialize" these students. The reality is that it just cuts costs. I know of a 4th grade student with ADHD who was put into such a classroom. There were 45 students in the class and 12 of them were identified as having special needs (as per their Individualized Education Programs or IEP's). There was just the general teacher and no aides. Undoubtedly, she will be blamed for the failure." Read Isenberg's plan that would eliminate those "pesky teachers." His real concern,: is that, upon reading this, LAUSD's reaction is going to be "What a great idea!""
Read the rest of the story HERE:
At www.perdaily.com
At www.perdaily.com
