Are public schools everywhere in the US getting bad post-pandemic?

[Anonymous]

School systems push pathetic lesson plans on us to do that don't make any sense or were written by bureaucrats that then blame us when the pipe dream don't work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in NOVA and the school situation is depressing. The biggest problem I see is that teachers can't control the behavioral problems of kids (not blaming teachers btw) so not a lot of learning is happening and the whole school environment is just really stressful for kids. I was honestly thinking about moving but I hear complaints about this from people in many different places. Are there any places in the US where this isn't the trend?

Sorry, but they were never good. They trick us into thinking they're adequate because when you put enough good looking UMC relatively high IQ kids (who get lots of outside supplements and parent help) into the same building, the test scores are high. I attended the best public district in my state in the 80s and 90s, had nearly perfect grades, and got my ass kicked at a top 25 university.

[Anonymous]

It does seem to be the trend, but in other states people have more choices. In PA, there is the option of cyber charter school. Not all are equal, some fantastic and some blah, but it’s a better option than regular public school- everyone is just nicer to each other.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Public schools are getting bad in most areas. There are some exceptions--notably elite suburbs with small-town governance in places like Pittsford, NY; Wilton, CT; etc. The factors driving this seem to be: (1) More kids with behavioral / learning issues; (2) teachers' unions (see Chicago's current debacle); (3) more families who simply don't care about academics; (4) over-focus on sports over all else, i.e. the only point of school is to make varsity; (5) self-de-selection of families and kids who care to privates; (6) lack of objective academic standards and passing everyone; (7) lack of enforcement of truancy rules; (8) focus on equity over excellence. Some of these are obviously overlapping, but public education is a disaster and it's not going to get better before it gets worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in NOVA and the school situation is depressing. The biggest problem I see is that teachers can't control the behavioral problems of kids (not blaming teachers btw) so not a lot of learning is happening and the whole school environment is just really stressful for kids. I was honestly thinking about moving but I hear complaints about this from people in many different places. Are there any places in the US where this isn't the trend?

Nope, it is everywhere now, and will keep getting worse.
We all know why also, whether you want to admit it or not.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote: Public schools are a joke and beyond the social aspect provide little value.

This is false.

you bet...

Public schools are better than parochial schools and both are way better than home schooling.

for learning?

Yeah. Home school is so poorly regulated in a lot of places that parents can teach kids nothing or even transparently false superstitious nonsense and not be breaking any laws or suffer any consequences. Bill Gothard's "Advance Training Institute" curriculum ("wisdom booklets") used by a lot of homeschoolers for decades, for example, is a joke.

Homeschoolers typically score better than both public and private school students on standardized tests and there are plenty of public school students being taught false superstitious nonsense.

This. Home-schooling has always out performed public education, and even private education most of the time.

The average home-schooled child at 18 is academically equivalent to most graduating College Graduates now.

That's why home-schooling has skyrocketed in the last decade.

[Anonymous]

I grew up going to one of the "elite" school districts described a few posts up, and I actually think my kids are getting a better education than I did in our pretty good (but not amazing), socioeconomically diverse midwest district. I can't believe the teachers make so little, since the job is definitely harder than my teachers had it. There are not a lot of extras, but their in-class differentiation, the use of evidence based practices, and the enthusiasm of the teachers are superior. We did a year at an old-school parochial school during Covid, and, while you didn't have the extreme behavioral cases, my kids reported more cliquishness, more goofing around / low level disruptions in class, zero differentiation, etc. I am very thankful it stayed open during the pandemic but I was happy to go back to public.

[Anonymous]

^ My main beef is all the test prep/ assessing they have to do, rather than spend the time engaging in learning. I also don't think they read enough full books, so that is something I supplement at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up going to one of the "elite" school districts described a few posts up, and I actually think my kids are getting a better education than I did in our pretty good (but not amazing), socioeconomically diverse midwest district. I can't believe the teachers make so little, since the job is definitely harder than my teachers had it. There are not a lot of extras, but their in-class differentiation, the use of evidence based practices, and the enthusiasm of the teachers are superior. We did a year at an old-school parochial school during Covid, and, while you didn't have the extreme behavioral cases, my kids reported more cliquishness, more goofing around / low level disruptions in class, zero differentiation, etc. I am very thankful it stayed open during the pandemic but I was happy to go back to public.

Education in the midwest seems to be chronically underrated (with the exception of some notable areas like New Trier in Chicagoland).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schools aren't bad, they're just not equipped to hire and retain quality teachers so teachers are leaving, plus kids have emotional disregulation/trauma they can't articulate coming out of the pandemic that at this point, they've been repeatedly punished for and schools don't have the resources to help with that.

The parents are the problem. There seem to be very many who are ignorant and entitled who expect schools to do the child rearing for them. They also don't seem to grasp the basics of how to get their kids ahead in school but they fully expect that it will happen by other people's hands. Often it's their lifestyle and parenting that has caused their kids to drain public resources. We've all known a few of them, haven't we? Many are on this forum. This has led to the death spiral of education in Northern Virginia. Looking at the list of NMS semi- and finalists for this year is depressing. There are plus-or-minus three good schools in the entire region. My one public hs in the NE continues to churn out almost as many finalists as entire multi-hs districts around here to this day.

[Anonymous]

They were getting bad before Covid. Covid made it way worse. The state of the country and politics don’t help. The USA has become a free for all, whatever you can get away with. Being a decent human isn’t rewarded.

[Anonymous]

The parents are the problem. There seem to be very many who are ignorant and entitled who expect schools to do the child rearing for them. They also don't seem to grasp the basics of how to get their kids ahead in school but they fully expect that it will happen by other people's hands. Often it's their lifestyle and parenting that has caused their kids to drain public resources.

+1000000

[Anonymous]

Do other countries deal with the same issues or is it an American thing?

[Anonymous]

Public schools are better than parochial schools and both are way better than home schooling

Are you in politics? Because you answer a question like someone who is.
Don’t let the facts get in the way.