I have said this before but I started teaching with the expectation that I would be teaching around the 6th grade level. This was great the first three years I taught because my fifth graders were very high functioning. And every year since that it has gotten worse by degrees. I thought nothing could be worse than last year until this year.

Out of 160 4th graders, 50 of them require special education, and another 40 of them are what we call 504. 504 requires extra attention and accommodations but not as much as the once requiring special ed services.

Out of 160 students roughly 25 of them are on the grade level they're supposed to be three of them are higher than grade level and the rest are not and are functioning much lower than fourth grade. I have said before but I have an entire class that is functioning at kindergarten level. Four of them absolutely do not belong in general education, they need to be with the all day special ed Service Group as there is nothing I am covering that they understand in the slightest. But for whatever reason the head of special ed will not take them because he just doesn't want to deal with it. He is lazy and Beyond.

I have just found out that of the students coming in next year, and I don't know how many total there are but I pretty sure it's less than this year, 50 of them have already been flagged for special ed services. Now that in and of itself is not what concerns me. We only have one full-time special educator who as I said is lazy as s***. On top of this we only have three special ed Paras. Each of them service between the 504 and this bed, each of them service 50 kids a day and that is too much for one person. The district absolutely will not fund extra special ed teachers or extra special ed Paras.

I do not have a certification or degree in special education. Nor do I have a degree in early childhood. My degree is teaching English in the upper grades.

But none of the grades are functioning on grade level. I would wager if I got a job at the high school probably I would be teaching at 6th grade level but then I would have to deal with kids twice my size who have cell phones and who knows what all going on.

So that is my battle..

And if School vouchers get passed, then the handful of higher level kids will go on to Charter Schools and we will be left with the violent, emotionally disturbed, and severely low functioning of the rest of the lot.