I am wrong, public schools need more money

[DougoMan]

The private high school I went to costs $15,000 a year for day students now and the average SAT was over 1200, I really doubt that the DC schools are getting over 1200 SATs (I guess that is 1800 now with the new SAT) despite spending twice as much money per student. Hell, 28k is what the boarding students paid.

SAT scores do not have much to do with the quality of a school. It is more of a test of IQ. Private schools get higher SAT scores because smarter people with higher IQs go there.

 

[Genx87]

Ahh yea it is. Do you have any idea how much it cost to educate a special needs kid? Pay for fuel for large bus's? etc...? Let alone in DC stuff cost a LOT more than most other places. Heck even Congressmen/senators get places together as they cant; afford to rent a place by themself here.

Why would it cost more in DC than other places?

 

[Genx87]

Somebody let me know when the same posters complaining here about public school funding start complaining about military and prison spending. Oh, they never do. There's hypocrisy, and then there's just plain stupid.

Everybody is a hypocrite. Now what about that waste within our public school system?

 

[zsdersw]

Let's not use DC Public Schools as the brush with which we paint the entire public school system.

Having worked in public education (in I.T.) for most of my career, I've come to know many great school districts (both small and large) and a few bad ones. The following are truths:

- There are good districts that spend a lot per student.
- There are bad districts that spend very little per student.
- Most school districts spend frugally and generate decent (if not stellar) results.

- Increasingly, school provides the only meal(s) a child will receive in a given day.

- Increasingly, parents make excuses for their child's poor behavior or poor academic performance, undermining any discipline and education the school attempts.

- In Wisconsin, for example, state funding is entirely unfair. Johnny Student is worth $X in state funding to one district, and $Y to another.

 

[werepossum]

There is an easy fix. Attach school funding the kids. Let the parents send their kids to whatever school they want and the bad schools will die quickly.

This. Those kids with motivated parents will be able to send their children to better (or at least less bad?) schools. Those kids without motivated parents will languish in dying schools that happen to be close by, learning the same pittance they would have learned anyway. We can't save every kid, but by attaching funding to the child we could save many. I do not believe that a majority of parents in DC do not care if their children get an education that will enable them to find lucrative careers, it's just that at the moment they have no way to achieve that goal.

 

[Atreus21]

So the million dollar question is, would the outcome be different if the same students attended private schools?

Frankly, I don't see how the outcome could possible be worse.

 

[mect]

As pointed out above. Its still cheaper than private schools in DC and those PS's do not bus all kids and have to take ALL kinds of kids.

This is incorrect. This is more expensive then most private schools in the DC area, and only $1k cheaper than where President Obama's children are attending.