I was and am an advocate of mainstreaming with support.

Unfortunately when they mainstreamed the students with special needs they didn't transfer the money or the support. Now they are often sitting in classrooms with untrained support (babysitters) and there are often no resources or materials appropriate to their needs.

Most classroom teachers are trained only to meet the needs of the average student. Of course, there were always those that needed a little extra help but now those kids don't get the attention they deserve because of the programming needs of the special needs students.

The trend towards private schools is exactly what the government wants. They underfund the system and burden the teachers with a job thats impossible to do with the resources available. The govt. is destroying public education so that it will be easier to privatize. Please don't play into their hands. Pressure your govt. to provide the necessary funds so that we can continue to provide equal educational opportunies for all of our children.