<p>Our district in Alabama had to spend over $30,000 on ONE CONSULTATION DAY to have a special autism doctor (the same UCLA doctor that Sly Stallone has for his autistic son) to fly First Class to Alabama to “consult” for one autistic 3 year old that lives in the district (the money was for airfare, one night hotel, car rental, food and doctor’s “fee”.)</p>
<p>Why would a district “have to pay 30,000” for “one consultation”?</p>
<p>I could figure out how much our district spend on SPED I have the budgets, but I can’t get over the millions of dollars that they lost track of- of agreeing and building a new district headquarters that wasn’t needed or voted on, that ran into millions more than originally planned, of signing teacher contracts that guarenteed pay increases that the district couldn’t pay for without cutting classroom services and laying off teachers, and just the general disdain the district seems to have for the community</p>
<p>“Our state has extra money for districts that have overspent their SPED funds. OUr district has never applied for it- despite constantly arguing that they don’t have the money to provide these students with their federal legal right.The reason? the money is put into the general fund for schools, so the schools and the district can’t prove they don’t have enough money, because they can’t track what it is being spent on.”</p>
<p>emeraldkity - that is very interesting. Do I understand you correctly?Are you saying that federal funds are comingled in the general fund so that the district has no idea how much subsidy to request from the state? </p>
<p>If so, that is a pretty serious audit finding. Federal monies rec’d under IDEA or any other federal program or federal monies that pass through a state entity would cause the district to be subject to a compliance audit. I have performed many a school district yellow book/Single Audit Act audit as a private CPA, and it is definitely not okay to put federal assistance in the GF. But it is also amazing how many private CPA firms are not competent to perform these specialized audits and how many errors go undetected.</p>
<p>emeraldkity - one other thing. I can sympathize completely with your D’s situation. My son was diagnosed with disorder somewhere on the autism spectrum (communication disorder), but the district wouldn’t assist us in any way because everytime they assessed him, he aced their little speech therapy tests (he does not have a speech disorder). We paid for our own assessment at BCM/Meyer Center and it was determined that in addition to the communication disorder, he was highly gifted. Off the scale gifted. I knew at that moment, they would mainstream him with no additional services. So we paid for language therapy and SI therapy and hassled them until they gave him teachers we knew would go the extra mile for him. It has worked out well so far, but he occasionally struggles. Thank goodness for the teachers, they have stepped up where the district would not.</p>
<p>it is very serious- and we have been audited but apparently the legislature has to pass to alot funds to audit properly?</p>
<p>The schools have site based management- which means principals and a commitee which I was on- write the budget-
money comes in to service IEPs but the money goes to the school and the school doesn’t track that it is being properly applied- and the district doesn’t follow up either</p>
<p>
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<p>northeast. The doctor charged a huge $25,000 fee - because although the consultation was for one day, he flew in one day, spent the night, spent the day at conference and flew home that night. He lost 2 days of appointments in California, which he claimed was a 25,000 loss for him since he still had to pay his staff, himself, etc. The other 5,000 was for first class ticket, lodging, car and food.</p>
<p>jlauer95: Do you have a reference from a newspaper or from school board notes about the doctor’s fees and trip to Alabama, when the primary site of practice is California? Also, it would be highly unusual to fly a doctor to another state, as s/he would not probably be licensed in Alabama if s/he practices in California. The doctor would have to get an Alabama license, which is very time-consuming and is also expensive. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Why would a public school district hire this person? Why would they pay for a first class ticket with taxpayer money? It is outrageaous. I do not understand. There must be a few competent professionals within your state who could evaluate this child.</p>
<p>emerald -</p>
<p>I see the dilemma. If your district were to receive these federal funds, they would have to follow a fairly rigid set of accounting and reporting guidelines set forth in several federal publications. Sounds like they are avoiding the headache. I’ve had several clients who have failed to meet compliance guidelines and were actually forced to return the funds (or in one case, $400K of free cheese). But I can’t believe they haven’t already been thrown into these accounting /reporting/ compliance guidelines for other federal assistance received. </p>
<p>And re: auditors. Gov’t, nonprofit audits have shifted to the private sector mainly because there aren’t enough gov’tal auditors to do the work. Often CPA firms will go after the contracts because they are lucrative, regardless of whether they are properly trained or not. If they are doing an inadequate job, it usually isn’t detected until the audit gets pulled up in peer review …and sometimes that never happens. Any entity who pays for an annual audit should not have a faulty system of bookkeeping…it indicates the auditor is not doing their job either.</p>
<p>our school district has higher property taxes, intended to benefit the schools. </p>
<p>however, other districts in the state complained. so they get more state money than us, even though they’re smaller and don’t care.</p>
<p>or something like that, i’m not sure…</p>
<p>so anyways; i’d say my school, a public, is better the almost all the private schools in the area.</p>
<p>they’re mostly religious ones, which might be a reason. but we’re generally on par with the local non-religious private school, although they have a much better campus, i wouldn’t say they have better teachers, as our teachers are pretty good, and i’ve heard from people who went there that because the school’s focus is mostly on academics, the kids tend to gravitate towards sports.</p>
<p>"The second point has to do with the middle school curriculum (although I hear laments about it from French friends, too). At the very time when foreign students are pushed to work harder, American students are expected to do little more than review previously learned concepts. This is beyond the control of individual teachers are even school districts. It seems a widely acceptable philosophy. When I complained about what I considered the unchallenging 6th grade curriculum at my son’s school, I was told by some anonymous parent “to go back to your own country.”</p>
<p>When my D in 6th grade got a new teacher that taught 2nd grade before and their LA lessons became about “speaking in complete sentences”, I went to my D’s school and convinced them that the kids could do better. 2 weeks later instead of regular 6th grade spelling words they started learning SAT. Nobody told me that I should go back to my own country. I actually used my foreign background as an example how to make an ESL student enter GT program.
It’s probably about the way how you speak to the teachers and how you help them to do what you want them to do.
The only advantage I really have is the fact that the school district is really small, and the schools are small too. I am not sure if this could work in a monster like HISD or Dallas ISD.</p>
<p>The most important things in life are not SAT words. There’s “intellegence” and then there’s intelligence. If the US of A is so god*amned stupid, then how come we rule the world? SAT words… wow… A strong vocabulary has nothing to do with power, money, or anything. They’re pretty- that’s it.</p>
<p>Words are like clothes- You may like the fancy s**t but any pair a pants 'll do.</p>
<p>And nobody start talkin- WeLL THOMaS JeFFERSON SAlD ThIS… jesus this is not some sort of world competition, where our kids need to know more needless garbage/ extra random trivial facts then the other kids (BTW knowing 5 languages? If you know English and 4 others, that’s four too many…)</p>
<p>“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education”
- Jesus of Nazereth, after traveling down the Mississippi on a steamboat and eating from God’s tree of omniscient understanding, thereby knowing all.</p>
<p>spiderman-reborn</p>
<p>I guess that it’s something personal.
Did you fail SAT at school? :-)</p>
<p>Mr.Gentlemann</p>
<p>Is it your way to demonstrate the freedom of speech or you are just jealous? :-)</p>
<p>My understanding is that this thread is about education, not about phobias.</p>
<p>Ya Ya:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You missed the part where I said an “anonymous parent” not a teacher. I know how to talk to teachers, thank you.</p>
<p>My S’s teachers did in fact push him harder because they knew he was capable of more and were willing to individualize their teaching. What I am trying to say is that if the kids are not challenged enough, it is not always the fault of the teachers. I can give quite a few anecdotes about parents who did not want the curriculum to be too challenging, who complained their kids were getting too much homework, etc…, etc…</p>
<p>Marite</p>
<p>If the kids are not challenged enough usually it’s the parent’s fault.</p>
<p>When I just moved to USA and was looking for job many people told me to look at teaching, so I decided to start working as sub to see what it was about. I have seen all kind of schools and all kind of kids. I was told to my face that “you cannot make me do my work if I don’t want” and “why should I study this if I go to jail like my dad?”. I have seen how printer and computer on a teacher’s desk were broken because the teacher pushed too hard with homework. I saw how students in high school pulled the fire drill 3 times during the day, and all the school had to leave and wait outside for the fire truck just because somebody did not want to learn. Teachers in areas like this just give up and don’t care anymore. Nobody wants problems in life.</p>
<p>Teachers are always willing to help if you ask and if you know exactly what you want. And this is the problem. Most of parents and students don’t. </p>
<p>A friend of mine told me that her oldest daughter being in 10 top % of her class did not meet recommended graduation requirements because she did not take 2 years of foreign language. Nobody ever told her about it, even in her senior year when she had chance to take extra classes in CC to make it up. And the family was not used to search the internet and ask too many questions.
In a couple of really bad schools I told students very simple things, and it was quite a discovery, something they never heard about. At the vocational health I told the students that they had to do their work since this elective was related to their future profession. About 5 of them never heard that it was elective, they were convinced that they had to take this subject for graduation. They were lucky enough that it was beginning of the semester and they were able to change the schedule, so they did it right away.<br>
Most of these kids never heard about dual credit, they don’t understand what AP classes are about (in one magnet school we had a presentation from CC, and it was all about associate degree, plumbing, nursing etc. Finally I decided to interrupt and tell them that if they take AP classes they will save money and time at college. None of them ever heard about it, and the representative from the CC even did not know that it was a magnet class).</p>
<p>These kids are all hispanics, they or their parents are immigrants in first generation. And there are too many people around them who believe that these kids are here to operate a lawn care vehicle and clean the restrooms.:-)</p>
<p>I personally don’t believe in the voucher system. The most needed kids will never get a chance to use it, their parents are too uneducated to know their own rights, and it’s all about rights. </p>
<p>I did not watch the program that started this thread. I doubt I would ever see anything new about “bad” American schools and “stupid” American kids. If it’s about NY schools, well, this is the city of immigrants. They are not supposed to get educated. They came here to serve people like dearest Mr. Gentlemann. 
What else do you expect?
American kids are not stupid, they are just cheated by ladies and gentlemen who cannot operate lawn care themselves.:-)</p>
<p>And it’s not correct to compare US education with Belgium or any other country in Europe or even Asia. These countries don’t deal with immigrants, they are national countries with national cultures and national education.</p>
<p>I support NCLB by the way. It gives these kids a chance. Not very big chance, but something is always better than nothing. 
If you have never been in black and hispanic areas it’s hard to understand. It’s just different America.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>most of it is just my opinion, it’s not the answer to your post.</p>
<p>you want to find fault… LAWYERS, LAZY TEACHERS and their UNIONS, POLITICIANS SUCKING UP TO THE POOR VOTE, PARENTS WHO HAVE KIDS AND CANT BE BOTHERED TO TAKE CARE OF THEM, LAWYERS LAWYERS LAWYERS.</p>
<p>*Teachers are always willing to help if you ask and if you know exactly what you want. And this is the problem. Most of parents and students don’t. *</p>
<p>I am wondering how this axiom would apply to my daughter who had an individual education plan to help her catch up in math. PArt of the federal mandate required that she be evaluated as regards to whether she was making progress towards the minimal goals in her plan regularly, at the same time others were receiving progress reports. Despite my frequent requests, and fears that she was not making progress ( the reason for the evaluations so the approach can be amended), she did not receive a single evaluation until the last week of the year.
At which time the teacher found that she had made zero progress " but I am sure that isn’t correct" she said.
This wasn’t unusual and your comment is dangeously inaccurate.
There are teachers who don’t do their work just as there are slackers in any job.</p>
<p>Teachers are usually willing to help–that has been my experience. But I am talking about the curriculum in general. In 6th grade when most other school systems put pressure on students to perform at a higher level, the American schools focus on reviewing and on social/developmental issues. This is what teachers have to deal with, no matter how helpful they may wish to be.
The fact that specialization occurs later in American schools than in other systems also limits the ability of teachers to be helpful. Case in point, in 5th grade, my S knew more math than his teacher whose specialization was in literature. She was great as a teacher of humanities and had absolutely no clue about how to nurture his interests in math and more or less expected him to serve as her assistant teacher. It was only when he encountered a teacher who actually was trained in math that he was able to accelerate–because the teacher fully recognized the need for him to do so. I don’t blame the 5th grade teacher. She’d mastered the math curriculum that she was expected to teach, a totally undemanding one that addressed the state’s frameworks. But no matter how helpful she wanted to be, she could not.</p>
<p>Yes, the US is a country of immigrants, but there are many countries whose population live in relative poverty yet have more challenging curricula, especially in middle school.</p>
<p>Why Johnny Can’t Read: And What You Can Do about It by Rudolf Fleish</p>
<p>Dumbing Down Our Kids : Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, or Add by Charles Sykes</p>
<p>Inside American Education by Thomas Sowell</p>
<p>John Stossel’s report is only about 20 years too late. These books talks about the degradation of American education…in the late 80s. For some real insight read this instead of bashing free markets.</p>