Kamala Harris VEEP Pick

teskeinc said:

Tim Simmons said:

US News’s main thing is pretty much ranking shit. 

I’m sure there are different metrics depending on who’s looking into it. TBH, if the US is in the top 20 I’m fine. I think dialing into local education issues trying to fix problems is a bigger concern. But for the most part I think the Us educational system is fine. There is waste here and there and there are holes that need funding here and there too. Picking them off locally is the way to go. I don’t know of a big sweeping change that’s going to make everything perfect for always. Certainly eliminating the DOE is not it. 

Charter schools and magnet schools have made things better. Class sizes are smaller and it’s generally kids that want to be there. Down side is parents are responsible for dropping off and picking up. At least for my kid anyway. I was lucky my kid won a lottery before kindergarten. 

JeBurkhardt said:

njhaley1 said:

Gern Blansten said:

I get the idea of shifting the cost of meals and books, etc., to the students. But the end result is that if the parents do not pay then the students are the ones who suffer.

If those costs were spread out amongst everyone (via real estate tax) it would be a minimal cost per property owner and solve a lot of problems.

I always thought it was a stupid idea to give students supply lists as well. How fucking stupid is it for a school corporation that can buy decent school supplies IN BULK at much lower cost then sending thousands of kids out to Target, WalMart, etc., with lists to buy shitty supplies? We always ended up buying the cheapest pencils, pens, folders, etc. 

Increase my real estate tax $10/year and take care of all that shit internally for fucks sake.

We have that here as well. The problem is that about half the area are retired, half of the rest are young and conservative. We couldn't even pass a bill to increase first responder pay, that's how dyed in the wool some people are. 

It ticks me off when I hear (quite often) people say they shouldn't have to pay taxes for school services because their kids are all grown up and are no longer part of the school system. Listen, when your kids were in school, there were people who no longer had kids in school paying to ensure that your kids got a quality education. Now it is your turn.   

Gern Blansten said:

I get the idea of shifting the cost of meals and books, etc., to the students. But the end result is that if the parents do not pay then the students are the ones who suffer.

If those costs were spread out amongst everyone (via real estate tax) it would be a minimal cost per property owner and solve a lot of problems.

I always thought it was a stupid idea to give students supply lists as well. How fucking stupid is it for a school corporation that can buy decent school supplies IN BULK at much lower cost then sending thousands of kids out to Target, WalMart, etc., with lists to buy shitty supplies? We always ended up buying the cheapest pencils, pens, folders, etc. 

Increase my real estate tax $10/year and take care of all that shit internally for fucks sake.

Gern Blansten said:

mace1229 said:

Gern Blansten said:

I get the idea of shifting the cost of meals and books, etc., to the students. But the end result is that if the parents do not pay then the students are the ones who suffer.

If those costs were spread out amongst everyone (via real estate tax) it would be a minimal cost per property owner and solve a lot of problems.

I always thought it was a stupid idea to give students supply lists as well. How fucking stupid is it for a school corporation that can buy decent school supplies IN BULK at much lower cost then sending thousands of kids out to Target, WalMart, etc., with lists to buy shitty supplies? We always ended up buying the cheapest pencils, pens, folders, etc. 

Increase my real estate tax $10/year and take care of all that shit internally for fucks sake.

The problem is that money will most likely never go to classroom supplies. It will go towards building programs (some useful, some not), or supplying computers for students. The people in charge will almost always leave it up to the teachers to get basic supplies like Kleenex. Which is why teachers put it on their list, because if kids don't bring it in they buy it out of pocket. The superintendent and school board don't look good and brag about Kleenex in the classroom the way a new scoreboard on the field does, or supplying every kid with a tablet, or updating technology in the classroom, etc. 
As a secondary teacher we never give out lists and I have always had to buy Kleenex for the classroom. Even when the school supplies it, it's never enough. 

I'm sorry that you have to do that. That kind of shit drives me insane.

mace1229 said:

Gern Blansten said:

mace1229 said:

Gern Blansten said:

I get the idea of shifting the cost of meals and books, etc., to the students. But the end result is that if the parents do not pay then the students are the ones who suffer.

If those costs were spread out amongst everyone (via real estate tax) it would be a minimal cost per property owner and solve a lot of problems.

I always thought it was a stupid idea to give students supply lists as well. How fucking stupid is it for a school corporation that can buy decent school supplies IN BULK at much lower cost then sending thousands of kids out to Target, WalMart, etc., with lists to buy shitty supplies? We always ended up buying the cheapest pencils, pens, folders, etc. 

Increase my real estate tax $10/year and take care of all that shit internally for fucks sake.

The problem is that money will most likely never go to classroom supplies. It will go towards building programs (some useful, some not), or supplying computers for students. The people in charge will almost always leave it up to the teachers to get basic supplies like Kleenex. Which is why teachers put it on their list, because if kids don't bring it in they buy it out of pocket. The superintendent and school board don't look good and brag about Kleenex in the classroom the way a new scoreboard on the field does, or supplying every kid with a tablet, or updating technology in the classroom, etc. 
As a secondary teacher we never give out lists and I have always had to buy Kleenex for the classroom. Even when the school supplies it, it's never enough. 

I'm sorry that you have to do that. That kind of shit drives me insane.

It's actually not a huge deal to me. I'll spend like $12 a year buying a 10-pack of Kleenex boxes on sale at the beginning of the year. And just put one out about every other week. Kids will tear through it in a couple days then realize they don't get more until I feel like putting more out, then they learn to not waste it. 
There's just so much wasted money in education. Schools don't always save money buying in bulk either. They have contracts with certain companies and their products never go on sale. Back to school sales can be cheaper than what the school would pay for a lot of things. 
When you shop at places like Amazon, which a lot of schools do, they will have a cap of 4 or 5 of items to buy so schools don't get their prices. Ran into that getting a class set of calculators, they were $10 each. But had a limit of 4. If I wanted 20, I had to pay the full retail price of $15 each. I don't use my own money for that, we get a department budget every year. Calculators were about half my budget that year. 

teskeinc said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

If you can't see why you should pay for an educated population benefitting society,

Than why should you pay for a bridge or the railway in parts of the country you won't visit?

Most people don’t have a problem paying, it’s the lack of trust and competence of the government that is the issue. The government wants more of our money for everything. 

The US used to be #1 in education. Now we are 17 or 18 and falling fast. But yeah just keep throwing more money to something to do the same things but only getting worse.

curmudgeoness said:

Halifax2TheMax said:

teskeinc said:

gimmesometruth27 said:

could it be that we are spending more money on securing schools than actually educating the children? it is expensive to educate one child, as someone pointed out earlier, but security is not cheap. i would assume that is coming out of the school's money for actually educating the kids??

why would we not consider doing something about the guns? seems to be an easier option. keep the money in the classroom where it is supposed to be?

It’s your big government at work. If you give them more money they will find a way to waste it. I buy a $75 box every summer from a company that ships it to my kids class and is there at his desk on the first day. Occasionally a teacher will message that the class needs copy paper or something else. 

Schools get X amount of dollars per student. Last I read it was about $5000 per kid per school year.

Hmmmm, sure. When was that? 1972?

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024/public-school-spending-per-pupil.html
https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics

Approximately twenty years ago, when I was trying to put my kids, including my special-needs child, in our local public school in California, the state was giving schools something like $7000 - $8000/ student. Since appropriate accommodations for one of my children would have cost up to $60,000/year, I was told to take both of my children, go home, and never darken the school's door again. Was this illegal? Oh, yes, absolutely. Was it a purely financial decision? Yep. Was it an isolated incident? Not really; I sat in meetings where school principals and superintendents boasted of how they had found "accommodations" for students with extra needs that saved thousands of dollars, pushed much of the burden back onto the parents, and did at best the bare minimum for the child. It was enraging.