And schools don't? Honestly, most of the responses I get from homeschooling parents on FR is that the only public school choice they have is somewhere in the inner city ghetto when the TRUTH is that they are all in the upper-socio-economic strata and live in neighborhoods with good public schools...as well they could well afford private schools if they did not choose the public school option.
I live in San Jose, and our public middle school does not even teach a year of science. It does not have a science lab.
I wish I could pull my son out and homeschool him, but that isn't an option.
I think homeschoolers need to have lots of afternoon activities, and I don't have the time to take my son to those because of my special needs daughter.
In our area, the public schools are mixed with 1/2 from the houses in the neighborhood and about 1/2 from the apartments. It's the apartments that have the ESL kids.
At $7500 per kid per year, most people in our area cannot afford private school, especially if they have more than 1 kid. If you can afford to buy a house, then most of your money goes to paying the mortgage.
Also, the public schools in our area are super crowded. The elementary schools range from 800-900 kids, the middle schools are around 1000-1200 kids, and the high schools range around 2000 kids. The classrooms are also crowded with 30 or more kids in a classroom.
The public schools where I live do not communicate well. They don't post homework online and lots of the teachers don't use e-mail.
Some public schools are okay, but a lot of them are not. I will not blame teachers for the mess that has made public schools bad. There's a lot of blame to go around bad parents, bad school officials, federal govt. being involved, etc.
So what options do you have when you live in an area with bad public schools: move to another area with good public schools, send your kid to private school, homeschool your kid, or try to make the most of a bad public school.
We tried for a year to make the most of a bad public school. One of my daughters cried every day after school. My other daughter started having tantrums because she was over-stimulated by the crowds and noise at the public school. We decided that our daughters would not go back to public school, even if I had to homeschool. It was an awful place for our daughters. Thank God, we figured out a way to afford private school, and we found a good school that would take my special needs daughter.
WOW! Talk about being arrogant! When my son was young and we homeschooled we didn't weren't in the "upper-socio-economic strata" and didn't live in an area with good public schools (though we didn't live in the ghetto either). We also couldn't afford a private school. My husband worked days and I stayed home with my son and taught certain subjects and I worked nights and he taught the rest. I think you need to get your head out of your NEA butt long enough to get some air - the gas is affecting your brain.