Everybody has seen those figures where they say it costs so much money per student per year. Apparently those figures have been low-balled to make it look less expensive. When you put all the expenses in the equation, you could send your child to a fancy private school for what it really cost to send to public (government) schools.
Here is a very short video link`explaining what the school systems don't want you to know:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvKyfV3JtE&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

Thank you Donna for a reminder to look behind the hea.dlines

As a young reporter, one of my first "beats" for a weekly newspaper was the monthly meeting for a public school board. One of the first meetings I covered was discussion of the county school board's budget which had to be approved by the county board of supervisors. What an education. Thank God I had a publisher who was tried and tested in real journalism, but new to being a publisher. While I was all awash in the Freedom of Information Act and behind doors meetings, he was an expert at budgets and money. He was a stand-up guy in the real days of journalism.

He prompted me with questions to ask about the budget. Simply things like asking for a line item budget, to look for increases or reductions in expenditures, general fund revenues and expenditures and most importantly discretionary spending. Before I was able to get wet behind the ears from the experience, I was introduced to the Virginia Education Association.

Although numbers was never my forte, I learned all to well, not just with the school board's budget, but with other budgets including state and federal, the importance at not taking everything on face value.

Sounds like quite the experience BK. After watching the video, I was thinking how expensive it is for the government to do almost everything. Spend, spend and spend and then worry about it later. Imagine the layers of bureaucracy involved if the government controls our healthcare? I was reading last night where the building is located that houses the IOU's that the government gave the Social Security Fund after they spent the money. Sad. Very sad.

Why in the name of God do we believe that our government will be more honest of healthcare costs than they have been on educational costs? This is exactly the same type of accounting flim/flam that allows Medicare to claim it has total costs per person less than Medicare Advantage!

The speaker in the video mentions the evaluation of quality versus the cost. Actually, that's beginning to happen, particularly in the big city school districts. I can speak to Chicago, where the opening of charter schools is burgeoning and the public schools are closing. The charter schools employ non-union teachers and require admission tests for prospective students.

I have a very close retired friend who formed a non-profit which has opened eight new charter high schools in Chicago in the last five years, all in Pilsen, a large Latino community. His schools require tests for placement purposes but more importantly, their admissions require an interview and commitment on the part of the parents of the applicants for involvement in their education. Their programs are designed to involve the parents and if they don't fulfill their commitments, their child is sent back to the public schools. Their drop-out rate is almost non-existent. In their first two graduating classes, more than 90% of their graduates go on to college.

You might ask why my friend has concentrated on opening schools in the Latino community instead of the even poorer black neighborhoods in the city. His answer was simple, alarming and disappointing. He explained that typically the parents of black students will not commit to the required involvement in the education process. Even if they commit, he explained, they often try to mislead the administrators and then disappear soon after their child's enrollment is approved. He explained, "opening charter schools in those neighborhoods is a waste of time". Disappointing, but spoken like the realist businessman he was before he retired.

A real disappointing report came from Detroit. My son, who lives in a Detroit suburb, reported that a very wealthy contractor from the Detroit suburbs announced that he was willing to fund the construction and operation of eleven new charter high schools in the inner city of Detroit. Detroit's goofy mayor, Kwame Kilpartick, later to be convicted and imprisoned fell in with the loud complaints from the teacher's union and rejected the offer, loudly announcing to his inner city constituents that "we're not going to let some white guy from the suburbs run our schools". The contractor withdrew his offer and has since funded the opening of three new charter high schools in the poorer suburbs of the city.

Just as an aside, when Kilpatrick was convicted of ten felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice and thrown out of office, he was replaced as president pro tempore of the city council by Monica Conyers, wife of longtime U.S. Congressman John Conyers. Mrs. Conyers herself has recently been convicted and sentenced to 37 months in the federal slammer for taking big bribes from a contractor doing business with the city.

By the way, John Conyers is now the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Does that make you feel any better about who's picking our judges? Somehow I get the feeling that our government is as wormy as a good-looking but really bad apple.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

The speaker in the video mentions the evaluation of quality versus the cost. Actually, that's beginning to happen, particularly in the big city school districts. I can speak to Chicago, where the opening of charter schools is burgeoning and the public schools are closing. The charter schools employ non-union teachers and require admission tests for prospective students.

I have a very close retired friend who formed a non-profit which has opened eight new charter high schools in Chicago in the last five years, all in Pilsen, a large Latino community. His schools require tests for placement purposes but more importantly, their admissions require an interview and commitment on the part of the parents of the applicants for involvement in their education. Their programs are designed to involve the parents and if they don't fulfill their commitments, their child is sent back to the public schools. Their drop-out rate is almost non-existent. In their first two graduating classes, more than 90% of their graduates go on to college.

You might ask why my friend has concentrated on opening schools in the Latino community instead of the even poorer black neighborhoods in the city. His answer was simple, alarming and disappointing. He explained that typically the parents of black students will not commit to the required involvement in the education process. Even if they commit, he explained, they often try to mislead the administrators and then disappear soon after their child's enrollment is approved. He explained, "opening charter schools in those neighborhoods is a waste of time". Disappointing, but spoken like the realist businessman he was before he retired.

A real disappointing report came from Detroit. My son, who lives in a Detroit suburb, reported that a very wealthy contractor from the Detroit suburbs announced that he was willing to fund the construction and operation of eleven new charter high schools in the inner city of Detroit. Detroit's goofy mayor, Kwame Kilpartick, later to be convicted and imprisoned fell in with the loud complaints from the teacher's union and rejected the offer, loudly announcing to his inner city constituents that "we're not going to let some white guy from the suburbs run our schools". The contractor withdrew his offer and has since funded the opening of three new charter high schools in the poorer suburbs of the city.

Just as an aside, when Kilpatrick was convicted of ten felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice and thrown out of office, he was replaced as president pro tempore of the city council by Monica Conyers, wife of longtime U.S. Congressman John Conyers. Mrs. Conyers herself has recently been convicted and sentenced to 37 months in the federal slammer for taking big bribes from a contractor doing business with the city.

By the way, John Conyers is now the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Does that make you feel any better about who's picking our judges? Somehow I get the feeling that our government is as wormy as a good-looking but really bad apple.

This is a good testimony for Charter Schools and covers issues rarely discussed. Thanks for a honest and frank posting.

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

The speaker in the video mentions the evaluation of quality versus the cost. Actually, that's beginning to happen, particularly in the big city school districts. I can speak to Chicago, where the opening of charter schools is burgeoning and the public schools are closing. The charter schools employ non-union teachers and require admission tests for prospective students.

I have a very close retired friend who formed a non-profit which has opened eight new charter high schools in Chicago in the last five years, all in Pilsen, a large Latino community. His schools require tests for placement purposes but more importantly, their admissions require an interview and commitment on the part of the parents of the applicants for involvement in their education. Their programs are designed to involve the parents and if they don't fulfill their commitments, their child is sent back to the public schools. Their drop-out rate is almost non-existent. In their first two graduating classes, more than 90% of their graduates go on to college.

You might ask why my friend has concentrated on opening schools in the Latino community instead of the even poorer black neighborhoods in the city. His answer was simple, alarming and disappointing. He explained that typically the parents of black students will not commit to the required involvement in the education process. Even if they commit, he explained, they often try to mislead the administrators and then disappear soon after their child's enrollment is approved. He explained, "opening charter schools in those neighborhoods is a waste of time". Disappointing, but spoken like the realist businessman he was before he retired.

A real disappointing report came from Detroit. My son, who lives in a Detroit suburb, reported that a very wealthy contractor from the Detroit suburbs announced that he was willing to fund the construction and operation of eleven new charter high schools in the inner city of Detroit. Detroit's goofy mayor, Kwame Kilpartick, later to be convicted and imprisoned fell in with the loud complaints from the teacher's union and rejected the offer, loudly announcing to his inner city constituents that "we're not going to let some white guy from the suburbs run our schools". The contractor withdrew his offer and has since funded the opening of three new charter high schools in the poorer suburbs of the city.

Just as an aside, when Kilpatrick was convicted of ten felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice and thrown out of office, he was replaced as president pro tempore of the city council by Monica Conyers, wife of longtime U.S. Congressman John Conyers. Mrs. Conyers herself has recently been convicted and sentenced to 37 months in the federal slammer for taking big bribes from a contractor doing business with the city.

By the way, John Conyers is now the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Does that make you feel any better about who's picking our judges? Somehow I get the feeling that our government is as wormy as a good-looking but really bad apple.

Good post VK. It will be interesting to see how many bad apples are culled this November.

VK, the Washington, DC, schools had the vouchers in place and guess who cancelled the program? President Obama. One of his earliest shows of support for unions.

Originally Posted by bkcunningham1

VK, the Washington, DC, schools had the vouchers in place and guess who cancelled the program? President Obama. One of his earliest shows of support for unions.

And he did it after his children were admited into private schools.