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 ...
The sixth highest priority? Educating kids.
In August 2009, they renamed the school (at great expense) a few months after The Won was inaugurated. They HOPED that their school would improve; they HOPED that naming it after him would motivate their kids; they HOPED that things would CHANGE.
Everything got worse in ten years. So much for HOPE and CHANGE.
Bttt
We need a Governor who makes the Retirees an offer they cannot refuse.
ML/NJ
Abbott should get the Legislature to limit our school property taxes. Every year they go up 10%. Not many people’s salary goes up that much if at all.
The per student cost in our district is 15K which is too much. We don’t need all those high dollar administrators or so many aides. When I was in school, our teachers had 35-40 students with no aides. Today’s teachers only have 15 students and have to have 1-2 aides plus a security official to shadow the weirdo kid all day.
Who’s fault is that? The parents’ fault. They don’t want to raise their kids. They send little babies off to all day and into the evening daycare and then it’s off to school to continue with the babysitting. Regular parents can’t be bothered to run for school board or even volunteer at school. There’s no such thing as a PTA anymore.
There was a group of our kids’ friends I’d cart around and attend their plays and sport events. More than one would make heartfelt comments their parents couldn’t be bothered to see them perform.
Health bennies for current hires likely cost the moon, too. You wouldn’t believe what some of the cadillac plans in NYS cover for current employees.
Oh they have a cushy plan for the employed... but I am saying a full one third of the budget is to provide benefits for people who are NO LONGER WORKING.
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It’s the parents. Without actively involved parents, it doesnt matter what your school spends.
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EASIEST, cheapest, & most legal FIX there is:
1) Terminate property taxes
2) Return to service oriented (aka user pays) system
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, cares about quality & cost like the one that writes the check.
Once their ‘lil angel gets tossed the FIRST time w/o a rebate you watch discipline get a drop-kick in the @ss.
NO biz will put up w/ the current asinine ‘look the other way’ programs in govt indoctrination centers. Not when that $$ can just as easily go to the next education center down the street.
Same biz’s would be paying $$ for the best teachers they could get & firing the inept.
No more ‘paying in perpetuity’ (aka economic slavery) either.
Too many ‘WINS’ to count...
Not sure where you are from, but that was not the case in MA. Sure you could retire early, but your pension was reduced, no SS, and the medical insurance was not cheap
Of course teachers stuff varies from place to place.
That is true of just about ANY government organization. Folks are living longer. Pensions for boomers is going to bankrupt the system. But the Pols don’t care because they get their “contributions.”
Its not simply about them living longer... understand, you can retire with a full retirement after 20-25 years... so, if you get a job soon in your 20s, you are retiring in your 40s... and you are collecting a pension and fully medical for up to twice as long as you actually worked...
This isn’t simply about life expectancy, its about being able to retire and collect your pension and benefits for life after 20 or 25 years rather than at age 65 or 67.
$42,382 x 30 kids. It adds up to a fortune.
I bet the teachers still ask for donations for school supplies.
One of the oldest tricks in the book to tug at those heartstrings and loosen those wallets. Create the perception of underpaid but dedicated schoolteachers in search of pencils and paper for their under-served students. Designed to make taxpayers ashamed for wanting to cut or even hold steady the school budget.
It works. So they will keep using those tactics.
BTW, school supplies cost next to nothing. Office supply juggernauts like Staples, WB Mason and Office Max have driven down costs enormously. Here, you can get a box of 150 #2 pencils- enough to supply a classroom for a year - for about $12, or eight cents each. I'm sure school systems can purchase in bulk and bring the price-per-pencil down substantially more than that.
You could get rid of 90% of the Administrative staff and not miss a beat.
It would probably be worth the effort to investigate the best procedures the Japanese use in education
They use a great deal of rote memorization—they have to, those 3000 kanji characters they’re expected to learn aren’t going to memorize themselves.
The schools and the parents expect kids to behave and show great respect for their teachers. If a kid gets in trouble in school, he’s going to be in trouble when he gets home.
After elementary school schools become competitive. Entrance tests have to be passed, so most parents opt for ‘cram’ schools which meet every day after school for a few more hours of education. Kid might get home at 7 or 8 and after eating start on homework.
I think it would be very hard to duplicate the Japanese school system’s methods here. So much of what leads to Japanese schools’ achievements is cultural. Ironically, Japanese schools are kind of modeled on ours.
You could get rid of 90% of the Administrative staff and not miss a beat.
90% of the administrative staff probably don’t even show up...
I remember talking to a teacher who worked in Newark, you know the district that pissed away 100 million dollar of facebook cash on “consultants”. Well he said his school offices for these “administrators” and “consultants” and they never show up to work, the offices are always dark and nothing ever changes in them. Except for the amount of dust on the flat empty surfaces.
School are not about education, well at least public school, the left views schools as a public works program.
I pay for my (very liberal - One has a rainbow Beto for Pres sticke)) neighbors kids to go to the public school down the street, then I pay for my 2 kids to go to a private school.
These are grade schoolers ,, Anyone can teach them .. no “advanced degree” necessary .. I know several parents that have no degrees or unrelated degrees that would do wonderfully.
If there was a way to do it without the union goons coming after me with chainsaws I’d accept half and that would cover everything from the building to lunches to books and supplies... I’d take that challenge. Just have the city gift me a usable abandoned or unused property to remodel... I’ll bring the rest.
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