School Choice

However, teachers cant do it all. Somehow, some way, parents HAVE to be held responsible. Where did the kids get their nonchalant attitude about school? I grew up being told that school was the most important thing in my life and being encouraged by my parents, who demanded that I do well in school. These kids don't have anyone at home telling them that, so there is only so much that a teacher, who only has the student for 45 minutes, can do.

Concerning this throwing more money at a school that is doing poorly, my Dad made an astute observation. He noticed that in school districts where this happens the money is mostly spent giving raises to the teachers who were doing their jobs poorly and thus causing the school to be substandard. My Dad's observation? "Giving the same incompetent teachers who are not doing their jobs more money will not make a school better!". Wow, how obvious, simple, and true is that? Want better schools? Fire some of the deadwood teachers holding students down from an inability to teach or inspire anyone to learn.

I can understand your frustration Para. I live in Rockford, IL where we just went back to "neighborhood schools" this year. There had been a lawsuit years back saying our school district was segregated and the poorer, African American students on the west side of town weren't getting the education that the better off, white kids on the east were. So after an expensive lawsuit the district went to "school choice" where you'd better register your kid early if you wanted to get them into the school of your choice. The transportation costs of this alone were staggering. What nobody from either side of the fence seemed to realize is that the whole district needed an overhaul, this was not a white or black thing, this was an educational malfunction in our system as a whole. Then they hired an expensive school superintendent who had never even lived in our community to help "fix" the problem. He took his exorbitant salary, then quit suddenly to move to a district in Florida. In the meantime we still have a terrible deficit, most of the schools are still on the state watch list and my taxes aren't getting any lower. I sent my kids to private school for a year. Then I saw how much of my property taxes were paying for a school district I wasn't even using and I said "no way", if I'm paying for it I'm using it. My kids have gotten a great education in our messed up school district. But I chalk it up to the fact that my hubby and I stay involved. We push our kids to live up to our expectations of them, and we aren't afraid to go battle it out at the schools personally if we see something that shouldn't be tolerated. Unfortunately, not every parent can do that for whatever reason. Para, honestly, I really don't know where I'm going with this. I jsut saw your discussion and needed to rant. My kids have had great teachers, but i admit most of the educators out there are overpaid for what they are doing. If they didn't have the union behind them I think we'd see a much different attitude, they may care about their jobs and the kids they teach.

Don't know about your schools, but I have had problems with the public schools in Texas, too. They just don't seem to care about the kids at all, unless they are atheletes or cheerleaders. Despite encouraging my children and meetings with the teachers and administrators, we had no success with the school system. I finally had to home school my youngest for a year until I found a charter school that met her needs. Not that she has any learning disabilities, but she has depression and OCD. The priniciple at the public school finally told me they were not set up to educate children like her, but if she had been in a wheelchair they would have been able to make all kinds of exceptions! And this even having her registered under ADA guidelines.