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Birmingham School Budget Essay

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In the budget amendments for the 2016-2017 school year, the Birmingham School District transferred $755,386 from the Autistic Center Program Special Revenue Fund to the Athletic Fund. The original budget proposal saw a greater transfer of $756,988 to the budget fund. Steve Scheidt, the president of the Board of Education of the Birmingham Public Schools, said that the budget transfer was necessary. “The Board of Education saw that particular transfer of funds to be essential to the welfare of Birmingham athletics, and the money was transferred from a fund that didn’t need that money. All budget amendments are passed with a majority vote. The Board of Education does, however, hear citizen complaints at the board meetings,” Scheidt said. …show more content…

Student athletes, however, are often given priority, and are more likely to get the accommodations they need.” Janice Hale, the professor of early childhood education at Wayne State agrees that too often, special-needs students, namely autistic students, are considered a low priority, and do not get the same access to resources as other students. “It’s a sad reflection on society of how little we care for those with other needs. It’s especially visible within our school students. If around $12,000 dollars is spent on the average student at the school, only around $8,000 is spent on a student in an autism or special needs program.” Within Birmingham, in Seaholm, for the year 2016, on average, each student brought in $15,200 in revenue, and the average student had $14,800 spent on them in expenditures. It was estimated that special needs students brought in the same amount, but only had $8,800 spent on them. With the budget transfers factored in, the amount spent on special needs students in likely to be lower. “The way we treat those in society who are differently-abled is, frankly, an epidemic, and as a society, we need to start doing better,” Christenfeld said. Thomas Alexanders, a sophomore in the Autism Spectrum Disorder Program, was also shocked at budget transfer. “It feels like such a low blow, especially because there’s no-one out there defending us,” Alexanders said. Hale stressed the importance of community

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