Find ways to cut that administrative cost and direct more money specifically to classrooms and textbooks and I'll almost guarantee public schools will get better over time.
Truth to a liberal (NEA etc) is like Hell is to snowballs.
Strange how the clowns who run the school systems build these fantastic temples of learning full of greenhouses, planetaria, and the like, yet the graduates can barely spell "dog" or "cat" or make change on their summer jobs at Subway.
Stosell (sp) is right! Goverment schools are a trye form of child abuse.
Anyone have an address for Chavis? I have some old (but still good only 2 years old) computers I would gladly donate.
How about it Freepers?
Here's a clue.
No matter how much money you give the "Public School", it is never, EVER, enough. They will always cry for more.
We educate each of our nine children at home for about $200 to $500 apiece, varying according to the complexity of their studies.
The Public School of the regional school district ("school collective" is a more accurate term) costs over $12,000 (TWELVE THOUSAND) per student, and that does not even include the bus contract, which is in the millions of dollars.
I think he was surprised.
How much is enough?
I am sure we could give an urban school district hundreds of millions of dollars, watch it fail due to corrupt administration, and then hear the same administration (with the help of the teacher's union) complain that they didn't have enough money.
The problem isn't money. The problem is incompetence on the part of the people who are running the public education show. Schools need to get back to teaching the fundamentals and abandon all this touchy-feely garbage that they left continues to shovel.
John Stossel is not running our school system. The NEA is running our school system. So if there is a problem (and there is), then you know who to blame.
He'd rent space at a posh office park, have well paid professional tutors, and have the meals served by expensive caterers. He lays out the prices for all of this and it would still be less than what we're being fleeced for now.
For starters, I am not going to say that schools do not waste money. That would be an indefensible position. But I will say that schools do NOT spend evenly distribute that 10K per student. What Stossel neglected to even mention was the high cost of educating the special education students. Specialists for autism run in the hundreds of thousands per state. 1-on-1 assistants for the severely disabled are expensive. Residential and day center placements for the emotionally disturbed run into the millions per states every year.
By law, these children are legally obligated to an education. If a child has autism, he cannot be educated in a traditional manner. A child born with cerebral palsy may require specialized occupational training to learn how to hold a pencil so that she can learn to write and participate.
And before someone wants to blast me about how these services are unnecessary, that is a moot point. By law these kids are entitled to an education just as my perfectly normal daughters are. Their education looks different, but is still valid.
Some kids with special training will be able to hold a simple, menial task job in the future and will in essence give back to society. Some will not. But I would hope and pray that no one here sitting in the comfort of their home or office would point fingers at another's child and say "YOU do not deserve to be educated. Go home and watch TV." Our society is not yet that hardened.
So, can any of us educate our own children for 10k a year? Sure we can, but how about those Freepers with children with severe disabilities? 10K would not cover a month's worth of educational expenses.
Stossel made a right ass of himself by ignoring this fact and comparing our kids one-on-one to Belgian children.
And, in fairness, some administrators made even bigger asses of themselves by insisting the sky is the limit in terms of money. I was disgusted by their greed. They are part of the problem as are the unions.
My wife is a public school teacher.
One her complaints is that the school where she teaches gets new computers for the kids every two years, or so. No one uses the computers. They sit in a room with covers over them, and every time the state sends the new computers, the custodians have to find room for them so they, too, can sit is a room with covers over them.
"Stossel is an idiot..."
If they identify Stossel as an "idiot" then imagine what they'll do to your kid!
At some point what people actually know is going to trump some checked box on a resume. That's already beginning to occur. The technological field actually leads in this area, but business and other areas are soon to follow. Engineering, medical, and other sciences will still require traditional educational outlets, but much if not most or nearly all of those curriculae actually are relevant to the final outcome.
In undergraduate school, one can get a business degree with as few as 10 (or 40 or so) courses actually having any direct meaning or purpose to one's professional aspirations. Reading, writing, and math can be self taught and more and more people are doing just that due to the incredibly low, and faltering, standards of the public schools. More and more people are spending money on tutoring or the like as well.
Most of the classes taken in undergraduate school for non-technical majors are just fluff BS. Most of it is spun so liberally that it's nauseating.
Once the ridiculous structure we have that equates a degree with knowledge, intelligence, or expertise is "adjusted," more room for people that don't have the credentials but have the common sense and knowledge will open up giving way to a new framework within this realm. I.e., just like techies can get "certifications" or other qualifications via testing, IMO so too will others be able to do the same.
Also, not saying it's gonna be any less expensive to pursue necessarily, but the general framework will have to change.
Find ways to cut that administrative cost and direct more money specifically to classrooms and textbooks and I'll almost guarantee public schools will get better over time.