Re: Autism Scholarships dollars

[Guest guest]

Hi Tonya,

I think the statistics you posted bear out exactly what I am trying

to say. For the majority of families, vouchers will not improve

school for them, they will make them worse since schools do their

staffing and services according to cumulative # of students, not

necessarily the specific amount of money for each student. After all

you can't hire a teacher or a therapist for $6314.00 a year. So

school districts pool the money from the number of students they have

and do their hiring that way. Withdrawing some of that money means

not hiring an extra teacher, therapist and so on, and yet you would

still have the majority of students there since they won't have a

choice due to economics. So choice for some, will mean, no choice

for most.

Nagla

>

> I just looked at the TEA AEIS Reports for the state. From the

numbers

> shown there we are debating over the potential for what will most

likely

> be very little money! According to the 2005-2006 report, total

> expenditures for ALL students came out to $5428 per student.

Special Ed

> expenditures were only $886 per student. I'd bet that if vouchers

> passed, they wouldn't exceed the combination of the two which is

$6314.

> That wouldn't even begin to fund a home ABA program or private

school.

> (numbers came from

> http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2006/index.html page 18)

>

> According to " Selected AEIS State Data – A Multi-Year History for

> 2003-2006 " , also from TEA, our state is currently 55.6% Economically

> Disadvantaged which means over ½ of our population couldn't afford

to

> supplement vouchers for their child. (see

> http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/hist/state.html page 2)

>

> When you look at the raw numbers, it doesn't look feasible for the

> majority of the state. It could also be called discriminatory

against

> less wealthy families, other disabilities, etc. not to mention the

> limited number of areas where specialized schools are available. On

> that note, how many of the schools in the state actually specialize

in

> our children? I know some charters will accept them, but don't

> specialize. Also, you can go to a charter school for free and

wouldn't

> need a voucher for that.

>

>

> Tonya

>