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"Stossel made a right ass of himself by ignoring this fact and comparing our kids one-on-one to Belgian children."

Stossel was not comparing children one-on-one. He was comparing systems. Go suck the NEA tit if you feel his piece was full of distortion.

For the record Stossel was explaining the concept of COMPETITION, something you status quo educrats fail to understand.

Give your straw man argument of "autistic children" the choice in which school would do better with the money. Did you even watch the show?

Yes I did watch the show and yes he did compare schools one-on-one with this school does better with less money, etc.

You obviously have no idea how much residential programs cost. A typical day placement will cost between 50-100k a year and a residential placement will cost between 150k to 250k a year. Obviously, the amounts vary given the cost of living in your area.

I'm not saying that schools don't waste money. I am trying to put some things in perspective. European schools are not bound by the same requirements American schools are. We educate everyone that walks through the door through high school. They have the ability to pick and choose. In Europe, the care of the disabled falls on the health department for education, not the schools.

My husband worked in a special ed. classroom as a teacher's aide about ten years ago. One of his biggest complaints was that there were children in the class who did not belong in there. One girl did horribly on the tests and was put into the class as leanring disabled. She was actually very intelligent. She just could not read English. The same tests in Spanish she passed easily.
As far as autistic children... there was one autistic child in the class. The school's requirement was that he learn basic colors. An eighth grader learning basic colors. My husband and the teacher did not use any costly materials. They just taught differently and the boy was at grade level in math by the time my husband left the class. As great as my husband was with the children, he decided not to become a teacher, because he didn't think he could afford to raise a family on a teacher's salary.
But, we've got our own five student school. When my children have had any difficulty with learning a certain way, he's wonderful at helping out by deciphering the learning styles of our children and saying, "Why don't you try it this way?"