Right now taxpayers pay around 8-10K per student per year. Private schools typically provide much better educations and cost half that much. It's just another example of goverment/bureaucratic waste.
depends on the city, ATL I believe is in the 13k range, I think chicago is about 13k as well... and ranked very nearly dead last in the country (4th worst in math, 7th worst in science), detroit was last in both categories...
True and I sent my kids to private school, and it depends on the school. I am very happy with the school she is in now. Compare apples to apples Private School my daughter went to did not have band, science club or any extra activities. Put things on a level playing field, my daughters class size was 11, my wife has 28. In public school since no child left behind was passed, speacial-ed kids(some not all) are in with the regular ed. There is no speacial education at private schools. Around 60% of college students at the best colleges come from public schools, how is that possible? Inner city schools have serious issues, some are the schools, but most are not. Most important parents take RESPONIBILTY for their kids in private school, because the money is coming out of their pockets. If all the parents did the same we would not have a problems we have today.
Right. Not arguing with most of those points but rather pointing out that the more goverment gets involved, the more it costs and the less we get for our money. This is true in every facet of public run entities. The goverment and goverment unions just keep taking more money out of our pockets and throwing it away. As for band and other extra activites.... why on earth are tax-payers paying for this?? (and band is not worth an extra 5K per student) The apples I'm comparing is price. You can get a better education for half the price from a private, free market school. How is this possible? Charter Schools are publicy funded and yet cost less per student and have much better performance than regular public schools. Why do the teachers unions fight charter schools so much?? I think we really, really need to get away from more goverment, (more money) is the answer.
The other odd thing about private schools (at least the catholic school I send my daughter too), the teachers get paid way less than public school teachers. Yet the quality of education is far better.
I audit public schools for a living, so I see where every penny goes. It definitely makes you scratch your head sometimes. Before we moved, my kids went to private school. It cost about $4,000 per kid. It wasn't a great private school, just private. Once we moved to a better area, we use the public schools. It's amazing the opportunities a public school child has over that of the private schools we came from. Any educational program, device, method, etc is available to these kids. As for teachers wanting more and more money..... If you went into teaching wanting to be rich, you aren't very smart to begin with. I would say on average, here teachers make 40-50K a year, with another 10K is benefits. That's not a bad living to work 3/4ths of the year.. I don't see what they are complaining about.
Becasue parents are involved, why do some public schools work and some don't? School here in our district gets 7500 per student, in detroit 12-14,000, we have a 90%+ graduation rate. Less then 50 in Detroit. Charter Schools work in same areas and some they do not. Look at the data, real data. Not just band look at all public schools do that private schools do not. Including Speacial Education, school shrink, counclers up the ying yang. The private school my daughter will be going to cost 10,000 grand a year today, 3500 more then the public school. I am sending her becasue they offer more. Tell you what give a public school teach 10-15 students per class and parents who support them and see what happens. Now put a private school teacher with a class of 30 in downtown Detroit. What do you think the outcome will be?
Don't forget to add the "special" students to the private school teacher with 30 kids. And, hey, lets make them high school students so they can threaten to beat, kill or rape her too .
Bruce what this argument leaves out is when we were one of the best nations in the world school wise, we were also one of the best nations parental wise. We held our kids accountable. There is a very good reason my kids will be succesful and yours I bet. I had a plan, from the time my wife and I got engaged we had a plan. We saved are cashed, bought a house in a good area and had some kids. We did not have kids and they say now what do we do? Public schools are FORCED to teach everyone, maybe some here should read no child left behind law and see what it did.
Another bit of info: The private school teachers where we were made approximately $20k a year, while the public school made twice that. The point.......they ARE being paid extra to deal with the "no child left behind" kids...... If its so bad, and they just can't take it, go find a "cushy" private school job and be happy. Teachers and farmers, I swear, someone is always trying to screw them over.
our public schools were top shelf in the world in teh 50's... what has happened to cause such a rapid decline in our education (on the whole)??? decline in public school education? decline in parental responsibility? Dr Spock? someone break it down
Hey, I went to one of those '****ty' public schools that had 40 students per class. Rats and roaches, leaky roofs. No fans, AC or carpeting. Not even a copy machine. Gang fights.. even teacher fights. They had a hell of a time finding sub teachers because no subs would come to the school. I still got a decent education. I had some really good teachers. Teachers who deserved every penny they got and probably more. Of course under the Union system.. they aren't paid on merit. Bummer for them. But the deal is that we pay too much for the public school system. It should be cheaper... not more expensive. You can't blame the extra cost on a small percentage of special needs kids. Of course the parent(s) of a student has a lot to do with the success of the educational process... but right now we throw more and more money at students who -honestly- will never benefit from even the very best teachers. All we are doing is going broke and probably lowering the potential outcomes for other students. Money is not the answer.
I don't think it's one thing, it's a combination of many things. Someone tell me how 60%+ of the students who attend Harvard come from American Public schools, why do we have such a large gap of students who do well and those that suck. I didn't read it again. There is also busing kids back and fourth, which is the second highest cost to a school. How many private schools have buses to maintain and fuel. Think about it
It costs $5k to bus a student?? I never had to take a bus... from k-12. Most city kids don't. ??? I do know the private schools in my area DID have buses and vans that picked up students.
Genius kids come from all walks of life, not just rich, nurturing parents in the suburbs. Not to mention I'd say 90% of american students go to public schools of some sort, so the percentages would actually still indicate a higher percentage of private students making it to harvard. The 60% has zero indication that a public education is as adequate as a private one. I don't have exact numbers, but its a simple statistical problem. I understand those saying paying teachers based on merit is a slippery slope, but a standardized pay creates complacency....although pay on test scores or merits would create cheating and a corrupt system of which students got which teachers, etc... Kids aren't held accountable anymore...ESPECIALLY starting with my generation. If a kid acts up, its inadequate parenting, or a social complex, or not having a stable environment at school....If a kid fails a class, it's the teachers fault, or the school's fault. No Child Left Behind and other similar programs have brainwashed us into thinking all students can be equal, when in fact, they can't and aren't. Some care, others don't, simple as that....Dump as much money you want into computerized white boards for the classroom, or new computer labs, it still won't make the kids any smarter, it just makes us as taxpayers feel better about "'well we are trying to fix it".
I am not comparing Public to Private here, I am just pointing out that if 60% of the kids in the best colleges come from public schools, something has to be working. As for your last statement about kids be held accountable, exactly.
Top 5 Scoring States in the country are collective bargaining states.Wisconsins was # 1 I think, about 14 points over the nations average. Bottom 3 are non union states. Now there is a waste of an Education. I think they could make more money selling fishing worms.
