“Reduction of class size has one major effect - a need for more classrooms and therefore more teachers who are union members.”
That’s right; as people here in NJ are demonstrating, if you have a million excuses why public schools don’t work then let’s just keep the non-functioning system as cheap as possible for those who pay the bill.
A lot of non-tenured teachers in NJ were laid off due to Governor Christie’s property tax cap, and they won’t be replaced for a long time due to their tenured comrades’ refusal to grant concessions. A lot of cops and firemen were cut loose as well (weaker unions).
Factors such as parental support may be the **ONLY** factor! Prussian-model schools may be contributing **nothing** to the child's education except to send home a very expensive curriculum for the parents and the child to follow IN THE HOME. Why?
Anecdotally, I have noticed that there is **no** difference in the amount of formal (at the kitchen table IN THE HOME) study time between academically successful homeschoolers and those children institutionalized for their education. Both sets of families ( home and institutionally schooled children) share similar home habits of regular sleep and meal times, control of electronics, and value for educational outings and trips and both are spending about the same amount of time IN THE HOME in studying.
So?....How do we know if so-called “good” schools are “good”?
Answer: We don't! NO STUDIES HAVE EVER BEEN DONE TO SHOW THE EFFECTS OF ***AFTERSCHOOLING**** ON SCHOOL STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES!!!!
Yes, I am shouting and jumping up and down!
1) We spend up to a quarter of million dollars per child for 13 years of government schooling and no one knows if these schools actually teach anything or if the **REAL** work is done IN THE HOME by the parents and the child, himself.
2) Parents seek out so-called “good” government schools, and then burden and **exhaust** themselves with high mortgages, long commutes to work, and often placing both parents in the workforce in an effort to secure a “good” government education that NO ONE knows works! In fact, have both parents in the workforce, exhausted, and spending hours commuting in car actually steals time needed for the AFTERSCHOOLING that is the **real** education.
3) Think of the lost productivity and creativity to our nation of workers and the environmental destruction due to those who commute long distances to secure a so-called “good” government school for their children. All this loss, for a government school program that has **never** measured **afterschooling** and may be utterly ineffective. Perhaps the only thing government schools do is send home a curriculum for parents and children to follow. The real work is done IN THE HOME!
( Not proof read. I am in a hurry.)