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Will this approach end up saving welfare/incarceration money? No possibility?liberal solution to education:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...mepage%2Fstory
Exactly what I have stated. This school district is taking a huge step to possibly solving the problem... Making the school integrated with the family through shelter as well as food. This is what I meant when expressing that the public has not made it clear what they want from education. This Mo. district has. So what do we think conservatives feel about this...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...mepage%2Fstory
Last edited by pgardn; 12-21-2015 at 11:47 AM.
Will this approach end up saving welfare/incarceration money? No possibility?liberal solution to education:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...mepage%2Fstory
As a conservative, I think it's wonderful that someone is trying a different method when the normal/traditional way doesn't work. I love that she tests the teachers in math - how can a teacher teach students when they themselves fail a math test 2 grades above what they're teaching. The lack of basic math skills in the American population in general also affects the college kids who eventually become teachers. The best and brightest students are not going into a profession like teaching. I would guess that a lot of the elementary teachers are housewives returning to the work force who want to be on the same schedule as their kids and choose elementary teaching. Their major was in something else than STEM or education. These are the people teaching our kids how to read, write and do math - then it's not hard to figure out why the kids aren't doing well either.
I do disagree with her spending time on music, art, etc. - if the kids are still behind national average, that extra time should be spent in doing reading and math (even writing can be delayed). The teachers who need math reinforcement would benefit from extra tutor/classes themselves.
And I absolutely love that this woman is a Christian and is living her faith in her everyday life. Maybe other inner cities can follow her model.
As far as cost is concerned, the majority of the money seems to be spent on administration - salaries, pensions, health care, etc not on the actual teaching of the students. I would guess that with a computer, internet connection, printer, library cards in a fairly good city library system and $50-100/year, I could educate elementary kids (the lower end for kindergarteners and the higher end for upper elementary) - even less per student the more students there were.
It definitely would save money on welfare/incarceration if students had the skills/tools necessary to go to college/get jobs.
I know two very large districts in San Antonio thru teaching friends. This is not the case for these two districts. But again, these districts are richer and the School Boards are made up of citizens who volunteered to get elected and actually care about sufficient auditing. There are wastes in any large organization. But I contend it's not on admin in these districts. I can safely add that SAISD has been corrupt as as well.
BTW you can look up salaries in the Texas Tribune if you think things are dicey in Texas. I do know that the stipends of coaches are not added on, but they are looking to change that loophole.
The money/resources that I suggested are from a homeschooling pov - not public schools. Of course teachers have to be paid, have health benefits, etc. But there is a LOT of waste in administration. I worked 12 years in the computer center of the public schools here in Miami (the 4th largest district in the US) and there was so much specialization, lack of work, people just waiting to retire - it was terrible. I was astounded by the difference in the private sector (where my husband worked mostly in small businesses) - how lean they ran, how much work each person had to do/learn, how little leeway they had with finances, etc. My husband interviewed with the county last week and they are so woefully behind when it comes to technology - it's not even funny - our taxpayers' money at (not work) but waste.
Well I guess Miami is not San Antonio, the wealthier districts anyway. There is access to administrative salaries in Texas, it's out there. When my cousin, who owns a small construction company, makes 5x more money than the Super of San Antonio's largest school district and one of the largest (soon to be 3rd largest in Texas) , I don't see what you see. I know who has the more important job. Maybe Florida education is totally screwed. Maybe they can hide a lot more.
Last edited by pgardn; 12-22-2015 at 12:15 AM.
It's not just the school system but the county too (in Miami). They'll dig up a perfectly good intersection and put a roundabout with a bunch of palm trees and flowers in the middle or line a dead end street with palm trees or put pavers at an intersection that pedestrians hardly use - totally useless - it's like they've got to spend the money if they have it - just for the sake of spending it - frustrates me no end. But the property values are higher here than in San Antonio so maybe they get more tax revenue.
Having a business is the way to go if you want to make money. One of my fellow girl scout moms used to own a towing company whose only business was to cruise up and down the highways pulling off stalled cars asap (so as not to block the highway) - you should see the mansion she lived in. Public servants don't get paid much, but they get it back in pension. Imagine working for 30 years, retiring at 52 and getting a pension for another 35 years. Do you know how much we (non-public sector) would have to save to generate anywhere near that pension? A LOT.
I can't imagine, I like working.
throw more money? no
get rid of all the dumb s from that school
enrol more asians and
im certain the education system in usa offers more scholarship to international students then local students....once a school gets a good rep that alot of students are achieving high marks to get into uni/college....then watch the mass migration of families buying into that suburb pushing up property prices and
Then get another government job (from another municipality/federal), work for 10 more years and get a second pension - that's what one of my best friends is doing.
the best general way to help poor kids, even kids with no homes, is to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour indexed to inflation, and free day care. Poverty, including homelessness, are huge obstacles for kids of any age.
The Repugs refuse to raise the minimum wage to be complicit with their perverted God who punishes poor people for being poor.
Brain development is different for kids who grow up poor..that;s why they tend to score lower marks on standardized tests...the key is early childhood education, which SA needs to expand the ECE program to include more kids BTW, and for kids as young as 3...
Military and public education...two pensions....nice...
Lots of reading and solid math education is the key. Even writing is not that important if you read a lot (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc). Something as simple as turning on the captions while kids are watching TV helps too.
I do not have a government job and I don't plan to get one in the future thank you. I'm not looking for pensions, I will run my own. But I do see the value in public education as it allows me to work with people who can handle all sorts of situations. And yes, there are plenty of good science people in this country. The real problem is the lower segment who drain the system in the long run. And we are back to my original statements. Public education mirrors the socioeconomic group it serves for the vast majority of the US. And IMO charter schools are not the answer. There are business people who know nothing about education milking that system. I'm sure there are some well meaning good charters, but what I have seen here stinks. They are horrible. Again its anecdotal, my probing has turned up a government giveaway. They close some of these places down after the primaries have made their money. Lots of scamming.
Sorry, it was not my intention to offend. I was commenting on the compensation of private (your cousin) vs public sectors.
I'm not so sure that it's socioeconomic as it is the quality/methods of teacher. I'll give you an example - my niece goes to a private Montessori school - there's low teacher-student ratio, lots of resources/funds but the method of teaching math is spiral (introduce a new subject, do a few problems, review previous lessons) not mastery (stay on one topic, do only problems on that topic, master it). Somewhere along the line, she didn't "get" a topic(s) and now at pre-algebra level (7th grade), she is falling apart - can't do word problems which is the ultimate in applying what you understand. Her mother is obsessed with keeping her on this track so that she'll be with the "good" honors kids when she gets to high school. It makes for brutal Thanksgiving lunch when I suggest pulling her out of school, starting with Singapore Math at 1st grade level and work upwards to try to catch whatever gaps she has in her math education.
At least where math is concerned, IMO educators need to focus on MASTERY of basic math (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, percents) in the elementary ages. Forget about statistics, graphs, all that fancy stuff meant to impress parents. On the other spectrum of the socioeconomic angle, I have first hand knowledge of my son's charter school in a low-income area that does great. If it did not perform, the parents would send their kids to other magnet or public schools. We have an enrollment period to sign up for a lottery for each magnet school (preference given if you have a sibling at a school) so there are ways out but it takes involved parents. So for us, (student) results and compe ion work - if anything, problems arise in the public schools which have unionized teachers who are hard to get rid of. So you guys don't have any school choice in SA? Is there no accountability of the charter schools - performance wise?
We dont have teacher unions. It's illegal and teachers cannot strike by law.
Yes there is accountability. But the charters get shut down and the businessmen have already made their money. Everyone has choice. They can choose to go private. You can also choose to go to a magnate school within a district.
You write all this because you care. I am telling you the proportion of parents who don't care grows with poverty. When a parent never experienced any sort of value associated with an education the kids are not likely to care either. It's a vicious cycle. Again, for the vast majority of cases, socioeconomics mirror the surrounding educational system. Because you know people who have taken an active role in breaking the cycle does not mean my generalization is false. The teachers will get better when the community as a whole demands it. The bad administration and teachers are not the base of the problem, they are symptoms of the problem. The State of Texas just took over a school district in Pearsall Texas. Read about that and compare this to The Missouri case I posted. Both are rural so it's an interesting comparison.
When parents care and unite things can get done. Then there are rich spoiled areas in which the parents get too involved. I would put Reagan HS in San Antonio As dangerously close to this better problem. One can learn a lot by volunteering time. Younger people can volunteer, I'm not amongst a bunch of geezers when I do.
Last edited by pgardn; 12-22-2015 at 09:09 PM.
There are teachers unions, but since TX is a right to work state, teachers cannot strike....but the teacher's union can and does lobby at the local, state, and national levelWe dont have teacher unions. It's illegal and teachers cannot strike by law.
There is school choice within districts, but if you want to go to another district it's not so easy...
Yes this is true.
The teachers "unions" are pitifully weak in Texas. They don't have the big card so it's not what I would consider a Union. There are teacher associations that lobby and really don't get crap done. These associations get most of their members by providing lawyers in case the teachers need them.
Based on what I have been told and read they get more done concerning education. They are not much of a self interest organization except when individuals need to lawyer up.
Last edited by pgardn; 12-23-2015 at 10:14 AM.
They can't possibly outbid TX's BigCarbon, BigFinance, etc. Who Pays the Most, Wins.
The problem with public schools in Oregon is the tremendous waste in Admin.
House Restores Local Education Control in Revising No Child Left Behind
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/us...education&_r=0WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday approved a sweeping bill to revise the contentious No Child Left Behind law, representing the end of an era in which the federal government aggressively policed public school performance, and returning control to states and local districts.
No Child Left Behind, which had strong bipartisan backing when it passed in 2001, was the signature education initiative of George W. Bush, who said the failure of public schools to teach poor students and minorities reflected the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”
Students taking part in a trial run of a new state assessment in Annapolis, Md., in February. The new test is linked to the Common Core standards, which Maryland adopted in 2010 under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
That law ushered in high-stakes testing to measure student progress in reading and math between the third and eighth grades. Schools were required to make every child in the nation proficient in those subjects by 2014, as measured by standardized tests. Schools that failed to hit targets along the way were subject to federally required sanctions, ranging from tutoring to school closing in the worst cases. Over time, the law became anathema to both the right and the left, and it became clear that the sanctions as well as the goal of proficiency by 2014 were unworkable.
The overhaul passed by the House on Wednesday, 359 to 64, jettisons No Child’s prescribed goals and punishments, and allows states and school districts to set their own goals and to decide how to rate schools and what to do with those that underperform.
"local control" of public schools in slave and red states means severe budget cutting, teacher layoffs, privatization to Christian Madrasas and shovelling taxpayer $100Ms to for-profit charter schools, and generally pro-Bible, anti-science dumbing down of K-12.
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