Should taxpayer dollars be used to fund private education?

[piercehawkeye45]

Going to a bad school will hurt the kid in more areas than just an SAT score. He/she will probably take a lot of crap from the other kids which will hurt his or her self esteem and motivation. Just a different set of friends or just a group of friends in general can work miracles with both getting someone ahead and pushing them down.

If you want to fix inner city schools you have to:
Get more after school activities
Get rid of the idea that they are second rate to white suburban kids
Get good influences in the building (teachers)
Reward good grades
Pound in the idea that they need an education to get anywhere
Get rid of the idea that a 'gansta' life is glorious

If you look at them, a majority of those are mindsets, inner city kids are screwed before they even start. Giving the school more money will help a little bit but won't solve anything.

[AgentApathy]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

Going to a bad school will hurt the kid in more areas than just an SAT score. He/she will probably take a lot of crap from the other kids which will hurt his or her self esteem and motivation. Just a different set of friends or just a group of friends in general can work miracles with both getting someone ahead and pushing them down.

If you want to fix inner city schools you have to:
Get more after school activities
Get rid of the idea that they are second rate to white suburban kids
Get good influences in the building (teachers)
Reward good grades
Pound in the idea that they need an education to get anywhere
Get rid of the idea that a 'gansta' life is glorious

If you look at them, a majority of those are mindsets, inner city kids are screwed before they even start. Giving the school more money will help a little bit but won't solve anything.

I totally, totally agree. I mentor a child in a bad section of Austin in a school that includes the child residents of four housing complexes and at least one homeless shelter. I see this every time I go there and especially when I talk to my mentee: they see life on welfare and in public housing/shelters and as a young unwed mother as normal because it's all they know. My mentee is the 4th child (other sibs are 19, 18, and 15) of a 35 year old mother who is pregnant again, this time with a Down's syndrome baby, which promises to be disastrous for both baby and family. Dad is in prison, and she was with her older sister at the mall a few weeks ago when the sister got busted shoplifting. They live in a homeless shelter, mom works at a fast food restaurant, and mom *claims* that she's off the bottle for the pregnancy but everyone is a little doubtful about this. There is no hope for change in this situation but for what ambition my mentee brings to the table, which is the reason I am there. As a relatively successful woman of 35 with no kids and no dependency on the government or drugs/alcohol, my purpose is to be proof to her that good choices yield a good life. I am one of the very few good influences in this child's life, which puts no small amount of pressure on me, but I'm happy to be there.

That said, a private school for young women is opening in Austin in honor of Ann Richards, our former governor, who was a strong, dynamic woman who overcame the gender barrier to become Texas' first elected female governor. She is known for overcoming alcohol addiction and catapulting women, Hispanics, and blacks into government positions formerly held only by white males. I've seen applications for Ann Richards' school in the counselor's office at my mentee's school, and I really hope that some of those kids will be able to attend that school and see a world bigger than the squalid one they live in so that they can strive to achieve a better life for themselves.

If a kid shows potential and has ambition, I'm all about sending that kid to whatever educational opportunity will best make that child shine and become a more fully contributing member of society. There is nothing to be gained by anyone to limit the potential of brilliance because the average kid or below average kid can't do it. It's just this kind of plan that I believe will reduce our nation from a world power to a nation of polar haves and have nots within 50 years.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

#1 - Parents
#2 - Parents
#3 - Parents

amen

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I pay about $800. a year in school taxes. I don't plan on sending my kids to our local school for a very long list of reasons.

Parental engagement.

For someone who will probably end up teaching in a publicly funded program, I have an odd take on this issue. Public education should only be for the poor or disabled. PE allows parents to disengage from their children's lives and makes the state the parent.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Griff

Public education should only be for the poor or disabled. PE allows parents to disengage from their children's lives and makes the state the parent.

I'd be interested in hearing more about this point of view, because at the moment it has absolutely floored me, so I think I have either misunderstood you, or you have access to information I don't.

I went to a state school (what you call a public school) as did almost everyone I know. Some of these people did have parents who disengaged from their lives, but this would have been no different if they went to private school.

In fact the few people I have known who went to private school were more or less left to get one with things - one person's family seemed to have the view that as they had paid for their son's education they had done more than most and therefore discharged their parental responsibility.

In an ideal world I think all children should attend state schools. The money that is currently spent on private education could be funnelled back into the state system via fundraising drives and donations from those who could afford it. Children would mix with all classes, types and abilities at school and therefore get a better understanding of different classes, abilities and lifestyles. And those who wanted more for their children could supplement state education with extra curricular activities. The great and the good who care about their children's education would make far more of an effort to raise the standards of state schools if it directly affected their own children.

I know it will never happen, I know it's impractical on many levels but I also know it's similar to the way I was educated until I was 12 and it gave me a great start in life.