Originally posted by: tec699
A quality public education comes down to one issue: MONEY! Public schools in money districts do very well. The parents are well educated. They make a great income and they have a vested interest in their child?s education. Over 95% of the student body will attend college. All of the students have laptops.
Go to a poor district and it's an entirely different matter. The parents aren't interested in their child?s academic work, the parents don't attend parent/teacher conferences, they abuse drugs and alcohol, the children live in sh*t holes, etc? Drug dealers are on every street corner. Hell I remember hearing about a 7-year-old kid that was acting as a drug runner for his older brother! 7 years old! The list goes on and on. The private sector is going to fix these deep social issues? Yea, sure.
Riporin if you think you can make a difference then please go teach in the inner district. You'll be greeted with a "f*ck you" and "Teacher I make more money selling dope in one day than you make in a week." Hell I've seen papers in a student's book bag that hadn't been touched in weeks! The parent didn't give a sh*t and you know what the student?s response was when this was brought up? "I can do what I want and if you do anything my mom will sue the school!"
The public schools in the poor districts can only do so much. Where is the blame at when it comes to bad parenting? Why should educators have to be blamed for every god damn academic issue? Are their bad teachers? YES! Are their bad public schools? YES! However, to state that every public school is bad and is under performing academically is ludicrous. Look at the community and you'll find a lot of the academic issues first happen at home. No amount of private intervention is going to change the mindset of these people.
Btw? the charter schools in NJ are an absolute failure. They have under performed time and time again. Their scores are awful and are continuously at the bottom of the list. The public schools in NJ are vastly improving in key areas but math is still a sore spot.
Finally, I had an awful public school experience. I?m not going to get into the details but my public school experience wasn?t pleasant. I had some serious academic issues coming out of high school and college has been very hard for me.
I also like the No Child Left Behind Act as well.