Is the solution for parents to move to small towns?

[Anonymous]

New England teacher here. Small town network, lots of tourism. Our schools are open and have been since the fall of 2020, with a couple of weeklong remote periods last year. We have masking, good ventilation, vaccine mandate for teachers. It’s been a great place to be during this pandemic, all things considered. But we have been getting so many move ins since 2020 that there is basically zero housing inventory left. That’s going to be a problem pretty much anywhere you go in New England.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having grown up in a small town, I would say no way. If you think the school board here is bad, wait til you live in a place where the dumbest kid in your class is on it, or the biggest bully, and they meddle directly in your kid's school and have an active role in every little thing, down to who your kid's teacher is. Small town school politics are brutal.

I agree with this also having grown up in a small town. It's a total crapshoot.

Also, by in large the teacher quality and resources in schools are subpar. Are there some great teachers in small towns? Yes. But I had some truly awful teachers, and about half that I would say were adequate. The level of professionalism in teaching in our area is WAY higher.

[Anonymous]

I live in a small-ish town in a southern state, and I've seen a decent number of people moving to town from the supposedly oppressive regimes of the mid Atlantic and northeast over the past 2 years. You know what? There are just different things to complain about and everyone's still complaining.

I wouldn't move here and wouldn't be here if I didn't have to be...the overall quality of schools is low to maybe average, there's a significant shortage of qualified teachers due to a variety of reasons, and the state legislature is a backwards group with no demonstrated desire to fix the very real problems in public education. But hey, if that sounds enticing...come on down. At least the weather is nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mmm-hmm.

Context? This pic shows Item 10. Were the students also asked to respond to prompts from any other perspectives, of which this was potentially one? I want my kids to be able to understand and express multiple POVs, even of those that they disagree with. Unclear from the information provided whether this exercise is actually well or poorly designed.

Except that this is the type of thing that Republicans are trying to ban (albeit their problem would be when the perspective taken was that of the Cherokee).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a whole state of whiners. I am from Texas and nobody ever made all this ruckus there. People here whine about nothing too. Teachers make a max of 48k in Texas, have no rights, cover recess, lunch and dropoff/pickup and it is a right to fire state so you can be let go off for no reason. Send these whiny teachers down to Texas and we will fix 'em.

... it's like you think those are virtues or something?

Why would any teacher put up with that terrible pay and bad conditions is beyond me. Hey, Texas teachers! Move to the better paying districts near Chicago. We are desperate for teachers, your max pay will be between 90K-140K depending where you teach and your degree, you won't cover recess or lunch and you'll be in a union.

And then we'll make taxpayers all over the country bail out our bankrupt pension funds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Democrat, not only would I consider moving to keep my kids in school and keep my job from being threatened by being unable to focus and perform, but I'm also enraged at the betrayal by the party. Just look at the dialogue on this forum. The party that is supposed to be concerned with social issues vilifies mothers struggling to balance work and remote learning as "shrieking" for free child care and not taking personal responsibility before deciding to have children. Sexist. They would rather signal that they take the virus more seriously the Republicans with extremist school closure policies than be concerned about working families, learning loss, child development, and low income families. They put the pajama/zoom class that can whether closed schools and unemployment and public health zero covid bureacrats before everyone else. It's disgusting. I've pretty much become an independent.

We wouldn't even be in this situation if everyone would just get vaccinated. And the only reason they aren't is because Republicans have morphed into some kind of anti-medicine cult.

You haven't read many of the studies detailing who is unvaccinated, have you? Nor do you have a basic understanding of infectious disease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mmm-hmm.

You did see that it was clearly a canned, national curriculum teaching "point-of-view." The next slide was undoubtedly asking the kids to take the POV of a Cherokee being forced out of their homes. Would I assign that? No, but it is not evidence of any red state racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maryland is a whole state of whiners. I am from Texas and nobody ever made all this ruckus there. People here whine about nothing too. Teachers make a max of 48k in Texas, have no rights, cover recess, lunch and dropoff/pickup and it is a right to fire state so you can be let go off for no reason. Send these whiny teachers down to Texas and we will fix 'em.

I would prefer my whiny teachers over the TX teachers. I want my children to be taught by good teachers. $48K max is a disgrace.

Agree. You get what you pay for and 48 k is not enough to get talent.

You do know that 1) COL is different in different parts of the country and 2) that very few top students go on to become teachers, whether they are in Maryland or Texas????