Lets Discuss "Public" Education Funding

[OldGuy43]

I personally never wanted anything from the government to assist me, I'm not eager for those strings.

 

[Smart Red]

My prior post was NOT intended to diss home schoolers. I have known many good home schoolers and many fewer not so good ones. I would not hesitate to home school my grandchildren if they weren't doing so well in school. My post was addressing the idea of being paid to home school.

As a retired educator - as well as a taxpayer - I am torn when discussing public school education and I live in a district with a relatively good, although small, public school system.

And like many others, I have no solution to the many problems seen in our schools. I do know that more money or bigger facilities won't solve anything. I know that better teachers or longer school hours won't solve anything. I also don't believe that private schools run on the business model aren't the answer either.

Love, Smart Red

 

[seedcorn]

Interesting subject.

Schools are bankrolled by property owners. We have no choice except to not own property. The financial drain is not the average student or teacher. It's the special interest group (sports, LD students, etc) and administrators that drive up costs. One LD student in our school of 1,000 costs $100,000 himself--LD teacher, special bus, special driver, constant nurse, etc.

Quality education can be had home schooled and public schools. It's up to student and parents. Schools are bd or good, it's what we made them and allow them to be.

 

[catjac1975]

Is that how you think modern educators should live? Do you think only people of means should have educated children?

Actually, what I'm thinking of is the days of everyone who wanted their kids to get an education got together, built a school house and the school master was fed at different families homes on a rotating basis as part of his pay. Talk about direct control of cost versus result that was it.

I remember being told by one fellow how much of a better education he'd gotten because he'd went to a parochial school. Of course I just had to point out to him that we were both standing in the same ditch with a shovel in our hands.

 

[OldGuy43]

Interesting subject.

Schools are bankrolled by property owners. We have no choice except to not own property.

I've heard this theory before. Do you really think that because I rent I don't indirectly pay property taxes? Do you really think the landlord doesn't take the tax burden into consideration when he sets the rent.

Is that how you think modern educators should live?

No, I don't, but the basic model would work, and it would eliminate all the administrative overhead that we have today, not to mention the costly facilities that have nothing to do with education.

Do you think only people of means should have educated children?

Therein lies the basic problem. We under the mistaken impression that education has to be expensive to be good.

What do the following people have in common? Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Frank Zappa, Errol Flynn, Nol Coward, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gustave Eiffel, James Watt, The Wright Brothers, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. All were more or less self-educated. All that's required is the desire to learn. Fancy buildings, expensive equipment and well paid teachers are not a prerequisite for learning.

 

[catjac1975]

As I told my students who thought food should be free. No one works for free. The basic model would work? No dinner if your kids gets a bad grade? The days that you are referring to were when the smartest high schoolers became the teacher for the school house. They did not have college degrees, masters degrees, and yearly courses to "keep up."

 

[digitS']

I did have to look up Errol Flynn and I'm not sure what that a Hollywood heartthrob did to rate the company you have placed him in. It seems he was expelled from school repeatedly as a child altho' his father was a university professor.

Most of us are not geniuses, OG.

Ordinary folks have hopes that their children will have happy and successful lives. Not every family can have an individual tutor or home-school their children. As you suggest, they have cooperated in the past to build schools and hire administrators and teachers. There is a complexity to modern education but there is a complexity to modern life.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

OG, yes renters pay indirectly. Argument is that farmers pay an large part of school bills while they ave very few to no dog in the fight.

Problem with today's work place is that you have to be trained going in. Very few apprentiship jobs left. Plus many jobs today require specific skills. The 3 R's are a great place to start but today that is all it is--a great start. Schools, teachers are not the problem, it's lack of parents who care.

 

[OldGuy43]

I learned to reading comic books by the time I entered kindergarten. Would you like to know how I learned how to operate a computer? I bought a computer for $50 from a pawn shop. In less than 6 months I was working for a major computer company in Tech Support. Three years later, I was in charge of the Long Term Reliability Lab for a different company. Two years later I was a Senior Technical Support Specialist for what, at the time was the largest personal computer company in the world. All this with NO formal training.

You can't tell me that fancy buildings with a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a football stadium and classes in Comparative Folk Dancing are necessary to get a good education. Yes, I have an engineering degree, but I never found work in the field that I studied. I think that's when I really started buying out on the need for a formal education.

As for Errol Flynn, I thought a lot before including him, but he did reach the peak of his chosen profession with no formal training.

Forgot to mention. The only time my folks paid attention to my "education" was when report cards came out.

 

[seedcorn]

Wow, engineering degree, of no value to you? How many self proclaimed experts would get hired in the computer industry today? My dad learned mechanics by just doing, built his own business. When he got out, he knew the automotive industry was going to pass him by because he no longer felt the need to keep up or buy the equipment. Today, employers require you to be educated before you are hired. Only initial IT employees learned on the job--they all have degrees in something. Computer industry is still a young industry.

You say your parents didn't care, sorry, don't believe that. You obviously gave them no reason to worry.