Very good point. The Middle Class is sleeping. Maybe pool monies and do marketing campaign showing Middle Class families living in poverty, working three jobs, in debt for paying health costs, three generations living under one roof with three bedrooms, etc, etc. It’s best not to run a negative campaign but to use sentimentality, identification, sob stories, then give something everyone can do now for five minutes that would be effective: email, write, phone government reps, not hire illegal aliens, not to use businesses that use illegal labor, etc. Then fight charges of ridiculous charges of racism, intolerance with stoic forbearance and repeat the message of how the Middle Class makes this nation, pays its bill and taxes, so that the Upper and Lower classes can have their entitlements.

Kill the Middle Class and you kill the goose that lays the Golden Egg(s).

So those of us who know the diminishing middle class has a limited but real responsibility in social programs we can pay for (based on our diminishing pocket books) will be ignored until we come up with some stupid short soundbite/phrase the ADD media will report.

What are some potential sound bites we can call the all-or-nothing open border types? Maybe “economic sluts”? “Opponents of a Middle Class”?

Not so in 1950-1960 where the children of labor went to the same schools with the children of professionals and capitalists. And competed if they wanted to in the same classes high and low. Bay Area High Schools such as El Cerrito High, Oakland Tech, Oakland High and the like accommodated everyone and imposed a uniform standard of deportment and basic studies. Your father could be a milkman or a UC instructor and everything in between.

We have really lost something and the loss was done to accommodate keeping some people comfortable and never having to change their ways or to conform their behavior to the higher standards.

Those days are gone and we have the “Brave New World” where we are sorted at birth to completely different hospitals, stores, schools, neighborhoods, playmates, occupations and sex partners – so that like associates only with like. Social mobility is no longer a feature around this state. We used to be vastly more socially mobile in CA.

The democrats using public money to support illegal alien invaders is just one more nail in the coffin of public education. They are continuing to estrange the tax base and the decent society – the productive society of people who were born here and are citizens – from the public schools K through University. It’s not just one thing, it’s a barrage of counterculture liberal anti-American, pro 3rd worlder, pro socialist measures that taken together keep the Brave New World going. Good luck getting any taxpayer support for your K-Univ public schools.

Once the productive class is made to feel that these “schools” no longer are identified with the society they live in, they will vote against school funding and stop hiring the products of these “schools” to the extent they haven’t done so already.

Instead they can identify with Hillsdale College, BYU, And who knows what other schools. And it’s only a matter of time before these colleges move into High Schooling – if the Charters don’t beat them to it.

It is not a good idea for us as a society in the long run for this Brave New World to continue and grow. But I can see it happening in my lifetime already.

There is a price to pay for liberals winning their way on policy in CA and the USA. Disintegration is that price. So much for diversity being the true goal of all this liberal policy. That’s a con. The real goal is power and domination over those that produce by those that don’t and their politicians.

Foreigners should look toward church schools and private schools for K-univ. And/or have their countries educate them.

We were “lucky” (I suppose) that our son’s language delay was pretty severe and obvious from his first evaluation when he was four. He was in Communication Handicapped (CH) Special Day Classes (SDC) from preschool through 3rd grade, so the district couldn’t even attempt to play those games with us.

On the other hand, the district had (and I hope still has) the Autism Spectrum Inclusion Program (ASIP) which our boy was in from the first year it existed in the district, when he was a 5th grader. He thrived, and our family is still good friends with several families that we met because their kids were also ASIP students. Our son may have been the only kid with an autism diagnosis – anyway, as far as I knew, ASIP was serving mostly Aspergers diagnosed students. Last I knew it was offered at Montera and at least one or two other district middle schools, as well as Skyline and Met West high schools.

So, the district has a long history of providing services for Aspies as well as auties. And in the past, at least, they were doing a very good job of it. I’m sorry that’s not your experience now, but I hope something I’ve said here will give you a way to make improvements.

And now I really am going away, and not contributing any more OT comments.

Two tips for JR – these worked for our family getting services for our son:

First – always, always, always record every IEP meeting. You have the right to do this, and you only have to give the district 24-hours written notice that you intend to bring a recording device.

When our family started doing this, we were amazed by the changes to our IEP meetings. Nobody lied to us anymore, nobody walked out of meetings on us anymore, the conflicts and friction and adversarial nature of the meetings completely changed and everyone was focused on how we were going to meet our son’s needs. It really was stunning.

Second tip – whenever the costs come up in discussion, say this: “I understand that the services my child needs are expensive, and I’m confident that the district will find the necessary funding to be in compliance with state and federal education law.”

I probably only used that sentence two or three times during our son’s 14 years in OUSD, and I only wish I’d discovered it sooner than I did. The district must provide the necessary services for a child’s disability, and “no money” is not a valid reason for failing to do so. That’s the law. Use it to your kid’s advantage. And good luck to you and your family.

With apologies to everyone for this off-topic interruption.