How FRUSTRATING. Two things seem clear: 1) The decisions are being motivated by financial considerations, not pedagogical ones. Any "facts" presented to support their decisions are just window-dressing. 2) The meeting was for show. They never had any intention of taking feedback seriously or straying from their script.
Even more frustrating, there is no financial constraint underlying the decision. The provincial budgets have built in elevators for real per capita budgetary growth in education. The motivation behind inclusion is the premier's ideology. The normal chain of command would be: district superintendent of special ed --> managing superintendent of special ed --> district director of education --> provincial education minister --> premier. Sadly, the tone at the top is rotten, and the result is trickle-down of a misguided ideology that seeks to engineer equality of outcome, because feelings of belonging are more important than things like being educated. Short of a provincial referendum on special education practices, this is part of the package that my fellow citizens voted for.
