Sierra Vista district to use stimulus money to pay for speech therapist
Wed, 11/18/2009 - 00:48
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Herald/Review
SIERRA VISTA — The Sierra Vista Unified School District will be using federal stimulus funds to pay for a private speech therapist on an hourly basis as needed.
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I agree with earlier post, the District has the funds—with certain
strings—so choices limited perhaps. But what are all the types of services
this money would provide and who made this recommendation?Reporter? And
thanks to Debra Scott for recognizing that we are taking money from “general
ed” students to assist those who need extra care. Is there some reason
parents, particularly those with special ed students in school, can’t be
compelled to provide a certain number of hours a week to (1) learn how to
assist their own children and (2) help with all the special training we
provide to this increasing pool of children? In fact, how many special ed
parents volunteer and how much time do they devote to helping those children
needing special help? Let’s hear how the parents pitch in.
This isn’t about the parents and how much they “pitch in” with the education
of a special needs child. Under Federal Law, these students are guarenteed
the right to certain types of “special help”, as you put it. Where the money
comes from may be dictated by the state/Fed govs, in that it certain types of
money specifically designated for SpEd funds cannot be used on Gen Ed
students, but the reverse isn’t true. Gen Ed, or Maintence and Operation
(M&O) money CAN be used for SpEd students. Most parents of students who
receive services are like any other parent, to imply they need special
training in educating with their children is patronizing to all parents who
don’t have degrees in education. Just because my child struggles in math and
needs a tutor, doesn’t mean I’m lacking in the parent department.
And just what does hiring a speech therapist stimulate? Where is there any
shared boost to the economy for the tax payers, who are having yet more debt
piled onto them? This is just more of the pent-up, out of control liberal
spending spree. What happened to fixing the banks and housing markets?
May I suggest you get yourself better informed before displaying your lack of
understanding for the world to see. Our school district is forced to comply
with dozens of federal mandates, not all of which are federally funded. Any
money the district receives from the feds has to be spent in ways dictated by
them. The district looses students every year to charter schools and looses
money for every student it looses. Charter schools are not required to accept
“special needs” students and so they don’t have to spend tens of thousands on
a single “special needs” student but the Sierra Vista School District has to.
None of this has anything to do with being liberal and I don’t consider
educating our kids to be a spending spree. FYI, politically, I am just to the
right of Rush.
Jimbo in SV, whether you like the idea of the stimulus dollars or not, the
District has received them and must spend them in specified areas. They may
not be moved around and they can only be tagged for spending at certain
times. Hiring a speech therapist on an as-needed basis means the District
keeps costs lower than trying to hire someone full-time, but still provides
FEDERALLY MANDATED services. Quit complaining at this level, it is not
effective. Get to your elected officials, use your votes, vocalize your
concerns in an open, public form with back-up data so that people will listen
to you. How much of the stimulus dollars are still unspent? Notice that Az
only has 8 Districts, but according to the Stimulus accounting we have 15 and
in District 15, 30 jobs have been created/saved thru stimulus spending of
approx $760,000! Seriously, I’m more worried about nearly $800,000 than the
District effectively using as-needed contracts when they cannot fiscally
compete.