Posted on 08/26/2019 7:17:23 AM PDT by Trump.Deplorable
Such a good question, Madeline! What does Asbury Park Public Schools do with all that money, even as enrollment declines? With schools all over the state cutting costs, why is this happening? I mean, $42K a kid? Those students must be academic superstars! After all, that’s the basis for New Jersey’s Abbott decisions: As Education Law Center explains,
ELC’s legal and policy advocacy, which includes such landmark rulings as Abbott v. Burke, has significantly advanced the provision of fair school funding, high quality early education, safe and adequate school facilities, and school reform, especially to schools serving high concentrations of at-risk students and students with disabilities and other special needs.....
Is that happening in Asbury Park? Because, let’s face it, $42,382 a kid seems like a lot and, thus, came up in that Twitter conversation last week. State Aid Guy, more knowledgeable about New Jersey school finance than anyone I know, often notes on his blog that Asbury Park is the “most overaided” district in the state:
The topic of Asbury Park has special resonance these days in New Jersey...... After all, the cost per pupil seems awfuly high* (all in, including pension costs, overhead, etc.) for a district where four out of five high school students don’t meet expectations in reading and six out of seven don’t meet expectations in math.
To drill down further, I looked at the reading levels of third-graders, a benchmark for success in higher grades. At Barack Obama Elementary School, 11% — barely over one out of ten — third-graders met expectations for reading. .......
(Excerpt) Read more at njleftbehind.org ...
Public education is a failure and untenable.
My school district, last I checked, and its been a while, was paying a full 1/3 of its budget to provide pension and benefits for teachers who are no longer working (retirees).
They can retire after 20 or 25 years, and get pensions equating to 75 or 80% of the salary of their last 2 years of teaching for the rest of their lives, plus medical with minimal to no out contribution from the retiree toward the plans cost.
So, you work until you are in your late 40s or 50s, and then collect on the company dime for another 30-40 years.
The Japanese spend 1/2 to 1/4 what we do for a high school education.
Their high school students out score our college graduates.
Throwing money at the problem has little effect on the outcome.
Maybe governor Abbot and lt governor Patrick (Texas) should figure this out?
In New Jersey, the state pays the pension, the school contributes some for CURRENT employees and the employee contributes as well. (more under Christie)
When parents ran the schools, the object was learning, with the greatest bang for the buck appreciated and sought.
Then “education” became a multi-billion dollar scam, run by educational bureaucrats at the state and federal level, in partnership with the teacher’s union, designed to extract every last possible dollar from their communities, in the name of “education” but with performance being far down the priority scale.
The highest priority? Political power.
The second highest priority? Union power and money.
The third highest priority? Teacher pay and perks.
The fourth highest priority? Indoctrinating students in leftist dogma.
The fifth highest priority? Getting contractors in on the gravy train.
It is the same or worse in Californicator land:
My school district, last I checked, and its been a while, was paying a full 1/3 of its budget to provide pension and benefits for teachers who are no longer working (retirees).
They can retire after 20 or 25 years, and get pensions equating to 75 or 80% of the salary of their last 2 years of teaching for the rest of their lives, plus medical with minimal to no out contribution from the retiree toward the plans cost.
So, you work until you are in your late 40s or 50s, and then collect on the company dime for another 30-40 years.
You can be a public servant, or a union member.. NOT BOTH..
JFK’s legacy the unionization of the public sector, and NIXON doubled down on this...
Destroyed government.
Here’s a little thought experiment. What would happen if you were to swap the student body of one of those Asbury Park schools with that of a typical Japanese school? Would the Japanese kids’ grade-level reading proficiency sink to 11%? Would the Asbury Park kids begin turning up at math-a-lons? Yeah. Those poor Japanese teachers would begin committing hara kiri after a week or two.
“Information Technology Center
The ITC was founded in the early 1970’s when the Board of Education realized that more information was needed to effectively operate the School System. A mainframe computer & data processing center was established and equipment was obtained to use for budgetary accounting and payroll processing.
Over the past decades, the ITC has progressed by keeping up with current technology, recognizing the needs of school districts and creating solutions for those needs. Over 45 school districts and agencies are using our system for administrative services consisting of GAAP-compliant budget and payroll.
To ensure success in the future we have migrated to an internet-based system. Implementing new servers, data storage, and a secure web browser-based access will speed up and simplify connecting to our system.”
Asbury Park also develops and supports budget and accounting software for their school and other districts as well.
How much is this venture costing?
I remember when they use to use their own academic/grade book software as well. But I believe they use Power School now
Failures happen at home, in the school and in the community
Failure parent(s) can still have good and bright kids if they have great school and a very supportive community
Asbury Park is an example of a total failure and no amount of money will make Asbury Park Schools “great again”
Does anyone find is “ironic” that the left named one of the biggest Failure Factory of a school after Barack Obama?
It’s the parents. Without actively involved parents, it doesnt matter what your school spends.
Use FDR’s argument AGAINST Gov’t Employee unions, and OUTLAW the practice.
Sad but simple; holding Asbury kids to a set of standards would be RACIST. Few demands, little performance.
They need principals and teachers like Joe Clark (look him up if you’re younger and don’t recall him). The movie “Lean On Me” was based on his work in a failing high school, and the opposition to him.
It would probably be worth the effort to investigate the best procedures the Japanese use in education so those techniques and procedures could be implemented here.
Much like learning from the Israelis on how to become highly efficient in airport security, instead of doing it TSA style.
Peach
And most of them are from the 10% living in two parent families who work.
You could cut the funding in 1/2 and get the same results. You could double the funding and still get the same results.
Yeah, I suspect there's lots of people with advanced degrees willing to teach 30 students to read and do simple math for $24,451 A WEEK...
Abolish government schools.
$42,000.00 per kid is more than a years tuition at many colleges. It’s a ridiculous sum.
L
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