Governor Elect Wants Education Changes,

[AnalogWife]

Coming January we have a new republican governor in who has said that he wants to cut Spec Ed funding, and that he is very pro bringing Charter Schools to the state. 

Has anyone seen something similar happen to their state, and how did it affect your SN child/ren?  Would it be at all likely that a SN/ASD/Integrated charter schools might open up?  I'm unclear how charter schools work, actually. 

Last summer parents received a written plea from DS's (3.5) SN preschool (his tuition is paid by a county agency) to alert the state legislature of the benefits of the school because they were planning to slash reimbursement by a lot.  I'm unsure if this measure passed, politics are not my strong suit.

My DS's dx is Autism Disorder, it's pretty solid, his standard deviations are always in the negative and have gone as low as -3.00 (speech.)  What should we be paying attention to with this new governor?  What is his education going to look like when he's ready for Kindergarten? Should we be worried?  TIA.

[shelbean91]

Not sure which state you're in, but special ed is a federal program for the most part, so while the governor can blow lots of smoke about cutting funding, I'd wait and see what actually happens before freaking out (I don't mean that in a bad way, I'm trying to keep myself from freaking about the state of education).

I'm in a similar situation as you - our new state superintendent of schools is very pro-charter school and 'back to basics' school---which is all fine and good on paper, but not always the best in real life.  I'm a teacher, have 3 kiddos - and my 2 boys have autism, so I'm feeling the pinch from all angles.  As much as it makes me nervous, I just have to take a wait and see attitude.