Thats another possibility, however its up to the district to decide if they want to allow that. There isnt an incentive for a well-off public district to allow it (exception being for an advantage for sports)
Lets talk public schooling
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Thats another possibility, however its up to the district to decide if they want to allow that. There isnt an incentive for a well-off public district to allow it (exception being for an advantage for sports)
And how will they pay for that? Everybody has their opinion on what should and shouldnt be taught. Nobody is saying how.
Well why should Baltimore continually waste away money they clearly do not need while the other schools around here are not even able to pay for a few extra teachers to support a strong AP program. At a basic level, it is a matter of money distribution, which is showing some clear problems right now. If the distribution system were managed correctly, what needs to be taught could indeed be taught.
I doubt that. Many homeschooled children are smarter than average.
Now this isn't to say that homeschooling is superior. Some parents make horrible teachers and I know by experience. However, parents who are patient and knowledgable, together with kids self-motivated to learn, make homeschooling a far better choice than public school for some.
Tomoyo
Fate
I don't think High School is measured by "grade", really. All one needs to do is accumulate enough credits to graduate in any reasonable number of years.
Sure, why not? But the money needs to be used to build AP programs, not building a new theatre or band room or something like that.
I'm threadjacking my own thread...but I ought to explain this.
Yes, many homeschool kids are very smart. Brilliant even. Based on the schools that we work with, I'd say our top 10% of our student body far surpasses the top 10% of a tradtional public school student body. These are the kids who graduate high school at 14, 15.
The bottom 90% though, is way less prepared than their public/private peers. A lot of that has to do with reasons why people homeschool (special needs, pregancies, religious fanatisim). Plus...many parents do not understand that you cannot just throw a book at a kid and tell him to learn (well, maybe you can, if he's extraordinaily motivated).
I'm against homeschooling in most cases.
How do you propose to faciliate a system of school wealth redistribution? Do you plan to take funds from the lowest performing schools and give it to the higest? Does it go by $$$ need?
If so, would this not in fact *perpetuate* the chasm between the rich and the poor schools?
True, but for Middle Schools it can be used to prevent failing students from moving on to subsequently fail more grades/classes.
The state is responsible for wealth distribution in respect to the school districts, such a system is already in place.
They already have enough funds in the lowest performing schools. There are plenty of reasons why the students are under-performing, but educational money is not an issue for them. Our rural areas are not necesarily the highest or the lowest, but closer to under-performing. Nobody can force these kids to learn, but if strong programs are available, then there is little more the educational system can do.
As I said, there are poor schools around here too, just smaller poor schools that do not contribute as many votes as Baltimore, so the Governors have little motivation to give much money back to us.
Miles Teg
Nuclear Powered Mentat
Then I'm another, I'm above average at everything except math, And I'm home schooled
Neonanocyborgasm
Deity
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It's a lot worse than that. Education standards come from the states, so each state has its own curriculum that may be vastly different from others. So it is easy for a district to have deficient standards without consequences. What's more is that there is little oversight so what few standards there are aren't enforced.
I propose that a national education standard be adopted, and all schools and students forced to abide by them. Students who don't make the grade enough should be in remediation instead of simply being promoted anyway, which is what happens now. Local governments could decide on how to distribute the funding to adhere to these regulations.
ShannonCT
Deity
Private schools can also recruit the best talent because they are free to pay teachers who have top educations and the highest skills, whereas public schools are restricted by county-wide seniority pay schemes and teachers unions. It's not surprising that public school teachers have relatively low basic skills compared to other professionals. High-skill individuals are going to be loathe to take a job where they are paid the same as low-skill individuals who managed to squeak by the certification exams. I've seen these exams, and tutored teachers and potential teachers to pass them. They aren't hard - the academic knowledge components are easier than the SAT.
Your Gov. is not the person who writes most of the checks that go to your school district. While most states have some sort of wealth redistribution plans for the poorest districts, most of your school district's operating budget comes from money rasied from within the district. Thats partly why this system is so unfair to rural districts.
I do not think that throwing more money at the problem will fix all that ails public education. Obviously, there are many, many other factors at play. I've mearly believe that the funding system is unfair, and you'll notice it too when you walk the hallways of a poor urban school/poor rural school, with a suburban school. The teaching talent might be the same. The student quality might even be the same. But the quality of PHYSICAL resources (Athletic Facilities, School Buildings, Bus Services, Computers, Support Staff, Gifted Programs, etc etc etc), will not be the same, and that is because of the funding dropoff.
Only the Elite ones with large endowments. Private school teaching isnt really that attractive for teachers for lots of reasons. First, years in private school service do not count for the lucrative state teachers retirement system. Second, you don't have any of the myraid of support systems that public employes have (like tenure. You can argue if thats a good thing or not, but from the perspective of the teacher, you'll have more job security at a public)
Plus, unless you're working at an elite school, the wages really arent even that much better. Private schools only have tution money to cover all of their expenses, including payroll (no govt. help). Many privates (mostly catholic ones), make up for that by offering a lower wage than local publics...but they dont require certification.
Perfection
The Great Head.
Not neccearily, Minnesota requires all school districts to at least have some open enrollment option.
Really? Without paying any tution? So any student can be bussed to any other public district that he wants?
Perfection
The Great Head.
You have to provide tranportation.
cegman
Scott Walker Supporter
This nasty place next to him also may have it too. I know that you have to provide your own transportation and you still pay tuition in the school you would be going to.
