Nice. Great to engage in mature exchange of views and civil discourse with an adult.
I’m paying $5000 each year in property taxes, virtually all of which goes to the schools - who beg for more.
$5000 in prop. taxes means little unless you also provide the value you are paying taxes on. And "virtually all of which goes to the schools" is really not true in any community.
Teachers are well paid for what they do.
In some areas, I'd agree. In most areas, teachers who have any decent standard of living are not the primary income for their family. If it's so lucrative and so easy -- why aren't you doing it?
“Nice. Great to engage in mature exchange of views and civil discourse with an adult.”
You’re the one telling ME I don’t spend enough on my kids simply because I don’t want to spend more on schools. Like a liberal, you think spend = results. If it did in education, more would support spending.
“$5000 in prop. taxes means little unless you also provide the value you are paying taxes on.”
My house is assessed at $250K, dropping to 220K next year. I have two vacant lots that I couldn’t sell for $10K in the current market. Yep, I’m just a rich guy rolling in dough. And yes, we also have an income tax, and a sales tax here. But my property taxes HAVE dropped to $4500 this year...
“In most areas, teachers who have any decent standard of living are not the primary income for their family.”
Same could be said of mechanics. Around here, few mechanics make 45K/year - the ave teacher’s salary in AZ. For a mechanic, try about 25% less for 12 months of labor.
“If it’s so lucrative and so easy — why aren’t you doing it?”
The same as many others - no discipline in the classroom. So I went from student teaching in 1980 to the military, and retired recently. I considered teaching again, but my sister & brother-in-law recommended against it. They are teachers in their late 50s, and would leave tomorrow if they could afford to do so. They love teaching, but hate the rules, the administration, the paperwork, mandatory lesson plans, and refusal to support discipline.
But they would gladly work for their current pay, if they were allowed to focus on teaching. And I would be glad to teach, IF I could do so in a place where cussing at the teacher isn’t acceptable to the administration.
If you want to make more money than what a teacher makes, change jobs. You’ll find year-round work a new experience, and you’ll also find yourself accountable for results.
This article’s ridiculous idea that parents are the problem is stupid. Yes, parents complain. And my wife is an RN, and her patients and their families bitch all the time. When my daughter was in 4th grade, the school recommended drugs and counseling for her. Why? Because one day on the playground, she licked her fingers and chased the boys. The modern, top rated school I was paying for considered that sexual harassment of the other kids. I said (and her teacher, to her credit, agreed) it was a young girl acting like a young girl.
They had her flunking language arts in the 4th grade - a girl who read The Lord of the Rings in the 1st grade, including appendices. Why? Because instead of writing sentences, she insisted on writing stories or poems.
They had a reading competition in the 4th grade, including testing for comprehension. My daughter out-read the rest of the 4th grade - the ENTIRE 4TH GRADE - by herself...but she was flunking language arts.
That is a teacher/administration problem.
And I pulled her from the school. This year, we are TRYING her in the 9th grade. The school is supposed to be one of the best in the state - hence the very high property tax. It seems...OK. No better than OK. And in November, the school district is going to try to pass an override allowing them to raise our taxes, because the falling property values aren’t providing them with the cash they have become used to spending. And no, I look at my $4500 bill this year and see no reason to spend more.
I retired a few years ago and could do it. In fact, given my strong background in the sciences and mathematics, I have been asked on occasion why I don't do it.
I refuse!
I refuse to go into the godless government schools to assist, uphold, and establish a compulsory government schooling that teaches children to think and reason godlessly. The children **must** think and reason godlessly merely to cooperate with the curriculum.
I refuse to cooperate with, establish, or uphold a godless government school that is influential in helping children become comfortable with socialism. ALL government owned and run schools in this nation are socialist-funded. If a children attends they will very likely become accustomed to taking money from a neighbor for a socialist service their parents want for tuition-free. If a child can casually accept tuition-free schooling from the voting mob why not demand a few thousand other voter mob provided “free” goods and services.
Government schooling? No thanks! I want no part of destroying the hearts, minds, and souls of children. I want nothing to do with any school that promotes socialism. The consequences for doing that would be eternal both for the children and for me.