Quote:
Originally Posted by Two Bills
Nothing wrong with the kids.
It's the parents who need educating.
Different interpretation to the words civility and respect these days.
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It's the kids and the education systems as a whole. Federal funding spent by states on "private school" vouchers means less funding in areas where parents can't afford to send their kids to private schools. I'm talking about transportation. Poor folks who live in cities, generally don't have money for transportation for their kids to go to school every day. Poor folks who live in super-rural areas, like the mountains, don't have money for transportation to get their kids to some private or charter school, the closest of which is a 2-hour walk from home.
Public schools are underfunded in both urban and rural areas, and vouchers don't help these kids AT ALL. So you end up with fewer teachers, who will get paid less, have to put up with more red tape, higher risk of actual death, just to do what they love doing - teach kids. There's no incentive for teachers to teach at rural and urban public schools anymore.
Once upon a time the unions were strong enough to ensure that the towns secured a healthy pension and health benefits package for tenured teachers upon retirement. My mom is the recipient of one of those. She taught full-time kindergarten-3rd grade for 35 years. Anyone who thinks she got all summer off, all vacations off, half-days for parent-teacher conferences, etc - has obviously never been a public school teacher. I know what she did, because I was her kid who she took with her to college for her 6th year degree, her Masters degree, her yearly mandatory summer seminar classes (at her own expense), and washed the dishes while she graded papers after suppertime every weeknight.
I'm the kid who spent a week before the end of summer break, and two days before the end of winter break, with mom in the classroom helping her decorate for the next semester and making sure all the supply cabinets were replenished.
Back then, the schools gave her a classroom budget to work with. She'd spend the money and be reimbursed a month later after submitting the receipts and paperwork.
Now, public schools don't have that option. You want your classroom pretty, then make it pretty. Just leave the school budget out of it. Many public schools in underfunded areas have been like this for decades, and it's getting worse and worse every year.