I'm getting all rage-y. A little vent session

PMeg819 · February 2015

DS will start kindergarten this fall. DH and I always said we'd send our kids to public school, because we went and we did fine. Except now we live in a state ranked anywhere from 44th-48th in the nation for education, and we now have a governor who wants to cut the education budget (but spend money on a new, privately run prison). 4 school districts in the area did not pass their budget overrides relating to their schools so they are cutting teachers. Thankfully, we aren't in those districts but it could be that parents choose to send their kids to schools in our area instead. We are on the waitlist for a few charter schools, but do not have a slot. I know he will be fine. We can supplement at home, we can continue to stay on the waitlist and try again for the other schools.

All of that just makes me angry. It's fucking educating kids- how and why would you fuck that up? I did send emails to our state reps/senator about it all but I'm sure they'll ignore.

mrsconn23 · February 2015

That's awful. I hope he gets a charter slot.

Our state's education stuff is a shitshow right now. They tripled the time for standardized testing and they're working really hard to remove the elected state school superintendent because she's a democrat who won't play nice (supposedly) with the govenor (repub) and house and senate (ran by repubs). They've been trying to get her out from the moment she was elected. It's utter bullshit. The good news is that it's pretty much dashed any hopes of our govenor being able to seriously consider a run for prez.

There's a private (Christian) school down the road from our house. I was looking at tuition for them to maybe send DefConn there. It's mostly a pipe dream. We're in a good school district. But I still think about going a different route.

6fsn · February 2015

That is terrible. I hate it for your son, but hate it harder for those that don't have other options or people that can offer support at home.

PMeg819 · February 2015

We have no private school option near us.

Well, we do but it just opened and they don't even have a building. They are in a church right now. Tuition is like $12000 a year. I'm not spending that on a school that I don't even know is good. That's a leap of faith I'm not willing to take.

Our state school superintendent is an idiot. She is quite possibly the dumbest person ever to be in the position, but she's a Republican and we can't have evil Democrats in our government.

mrsconn23 · February 2015

Yeah, the biggest thing stopping me from seriously considering them is that it's a Baptist church attached to the school. It's a 'Christian' school, so I'm wondering if they're a little more 'lax' than Baptists.

The tuition isn't that bad (under 10,000/year). But we really are looking forward to no more daycare, so private school wouldn't really help with that. Ha. I don't think private school tuition is tax deductible.

Also, I've mentioned it in passing to DH and he's less than interested. He's the same with the whole, "We survived public school. Our kids will too."

*Barbie* · February 2015

PMeg819 said:

Except now we live in a state ranked anywhere from 44th-48th in the nation for education,

I have to wonder the basis for these rankings - is it some sort of standardized testing scores? is it based on student to teacher ratio? is it based on some sort of funding/budget information? how do they measure success?

I guess not understanding the basis for the ranking information, I don't know how much weight I'd give to them.

your kids are fortunate that they have supportive parents who care about their education and success and will supplement at home when necessary.

GBCK · February 2015

A fuckiin men to all of this.

(And we're in the no private schools option camp too. Locally, basically all the private schools are parochial, and either catholic or damn- fundie based. The one charter school locally I could probably get her into is a chain I've worked for and I won't deal with their 'oh, no, we're secular, it's all about *CHARACTER* and they just happen to echo christian ideals" BS.)

Related, they changed laws, I think I mentioned, about birthdates and starting school. We've applied for a waiver (so she can start this fall) but...we're unsure for a lot of reasons (I have a long post to make on the subject [which literally revolves around poop] but I"m feeling rather shitty-mom-guilt [HA, pun] about it, so I'm not up to it yet). The flipside is because they passed that law, they basically gutted/eliminated all of the young 5's/readiness type programs.

So my options are start kindy, leave her in the INCREDIBLY expensive private daycare for another year or...I don't know.

Heffalump · February 2015

Man, we just went through this, and I'm sorry Pmeg. It SUCKS.

I can't complain too hard, because as I've mentioned: love the new house, love the new neighbors. But if our neighborhood school hadn't gone from okay to worrisome, we would have been happy to stay put (and pocket the $$$).

There are a TON of private schools here, but all the decent ones are insanely expensive--as in, more expensive per semester than in-state college tuition. When we looked at that, and we compared it to spending that money on a new house in a better school district, the question sort of answered itself.

Fingers crossed on the charters, PMeg. And take heart, they probably won't ignore you. You'll probably get a reply that says "Rep. Douchenozzle shares your concern about educating our children. Rep. Douchenozzle believes the children are our future: teach them well and let them lead the way..."

PMeg819 · February 2015

Barbie, the ones I have seen are based on funding per student, class size, graduation rates, percent of graduating students going on to higher education, and a few other things. It's stuff you can standardize over all states so things like testing aren't factored in to it. I do put some weight into it because it's not data you can easily manipulate and the selection of those criteria have science to back it up (like smaller class sizes are better for students).

cakemurderer · February 2015

Ugh, that stinks. But I am a big believer in education at home being just as important as what you learn in school. My parents made a huge effort to keep us thinking and intellectually active even outside of the classroom, so I think your kid will be A-OK thanks to you.

mrs.conn23 said:

Yeah, the biggest thing stopping me from seriously considering them is that it's a Baptist church attached to the school. It's a 'Christian' school, so I'm wondering if they're a little more 'lax' than Baptists.

I went to a private Christian school for elementary school, and aside from a weekly 30-minute-long generic chapel service, there wasn't anything especially religious about it. All I remember from chapel was the thrill of being the one chosen that week to snuff out the candles, and the lone Jewish kid in our school who got to sit in the back and read a book instead of having to participate.

MesmrEwe · February 2015

Here's a thought - there are kids who excel in "failing" schools and there are kids who give "failing" schools a bad wrap adding to the statistics, but this never gives you the full story, then there are kids who excel regardless of the school environment. Low graduation rates don't take into account things like special needs kids who aren't at a high level of functioning so don't qualify for a diploma, Amish kids who only stay through a certain age, kids who have no interest in anything school, ESL, etc.. Test scores don't equal quality employee nor leader in life, it's all about personal drive.

Funding per student means squat, it never takes into account how much the school spends on administrators who aren't actually in the classroom. Class size also means little when you really think about it. Why do colleges that spout low class sizes still have 300 seat lecture halls and still produce quality grads. It's not the class size as much as it is the quality of the teacher for the subject matter. Not every student is going to seek out higher education. Not every profession needs a college degree, nor does a degree tell one what kind of employee they'll be. A person with drive will succeed whether they have an overpriced sheet of paper or not.

DD goes to a Christian school now. She had gone to a Catholic school but we had warning flags flying all over the dang place so we pulled her from there. The Catholic school by all measures was suppose to be one of the best schools in the district. But, when your kid comes home covered in bruises, mysterious injuries that the school's story would never line up with what DD said happened, one landing her in the ER for a CT, then academically going from the top of the class to almost failing, and we move her - it was a tough decision, but it needed to be done... It ultimately comes down to where is the best school for YOUR child and their way of learning. Nothing more, nothing less. Socially where are her friends going, having friends that they've known to start makes things easier than entering a room/school full of people that are strangers with long-standing friendships. Do your due diligence in person, ask friends who work for the district (Janitors have a way of not mincing words) what their opinion is, don't look at numbers that don't tell you what the teachers, students, and curriculum are like..

*Barbie* · February 2015

PMeg819 said:

Barbie, the ones I have seen are based on funding per student, class size, graduation rates, percent of graduating students going on to higher education, and a few other things. It's stuff you can standardize over all states so things like testing aren't factored in to it. I do put some weight into it because it's not data you can easily manipulate and the selection of those criteria have science to back it up (like smaller class sizes are better for students).

That makes a bit more sense, but I'm going to venture to say that living in a border state (higher percentage of ESL) and variations in COL could also have an impact on those factors.

I think that it depends a lot more on the student's personal drive and abilities and the home environment (is education valued/encouraged? are parents willing/able to support and provide extra assistance) than the school itself. You can have "bad" teachers in "good" schools - I could say that was my experience from K-college.

I'm getting all rage-y. A little vent session

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