Wealthy kids will have private teachers

[Anonymous]

...while everyone else’s children fall further behind. Our society is so broken.

[Anonymous]

You’re just noticing the inequities now? Not very observant, are you?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I do notice. I have noticed before. In normal times public education offers a lot to help close the gap. Without it our society will become even more divided. Distance learning cannot provide the same bridge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I do notice. I have noticed before. In normal times public education offers a lot to help close the gap. Without it our society will become even more divided. Distance learning cannot provide the same bridge.

Obviously the rest of society doesn’t agree because public schools have been grossly underfunded for decades. How many threads about the common good of public schools did you start before the pandemic?

[Anonymous]

This is literally how it has always been...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I do notice. I have noticed before. In normal times public education offers a lot to help close the gap. Without it our society will become even more divided. Distance learning cannot provide the same bridge.

Obviously the rest of society doesn’t agree because public schools have been grossly underfunded for decades. How many threads about the common good of public schools did you start before the pandemic?

This is the problem. We have allowed public schools to fall apart for years-it has been particularly bad since the Great Recession in 2008, when education funding was slashed. That funding was never restored. Flash forward to today, 12 years later, with over 2 million additional public school students we have to provide for. The money just isn't there. School infrastructure is crumbling. There is lead in the pipes. No air conditioning, even as our climate gets warmer. Teachers have to beg on Donors Choose to fund basic supplies for their classrooms. Staff stocks the bathrooms with soap and toilet paper, or everyone goes without. Now, people are demanding that schools magically create outdoor classrooms, upgrade air filters (most schools don't even have HVAC systems to be upgraded, in the first place), set up tents, provide computers and internet access, provide PPE, provide counseling for all the kids whose lives have been uprooted by COVID and our country's abysmal response, make class sizes smaller by hiring more teachers and/or renting out public spaces, etc. - and the money is not there. I don't understand why people think that somehow, this is something individual schools or districts should be able to control.
We can not "do more with less". We have been at the bone for years. If this crisis hadn't happened, people would continue ignoring the issue and complaining about how teachers are just "lazy".

[Anonymous]

Very few kids will actually have private teachers.

[Anonymous]

And these private teachers are called tutors. The wealthy and even the middle class had them before the pandemic. The only difference now is they may increase the hours or start their kids with a tutor younger than they planned. No one yelled about tutors before, no need to start panicking about them now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very few kids will actually have private teachers.

Not really, if you include tutors as well. We hired someone for 9 hours a week because we’re still hoping our school can open 2x a week (ny here). 55/hr.

I wouldn’t call this person a “private teacher” because it’s only 9 hours. But 9 hours is better than 0.

[Anonymous]

Wealthy kids have always had private teachers.

Just more people are stretching to provide those teachers now.

Same old, same old.

[Anonymous]

And this is different from pre pandemic how, OP?

[Anonymous]

Your kids will fall behind because they have a broken record for a parent. They'll just learn "It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair." while other kids learn to speak, read and write novels and philosophical treatises.

My broke kids will be making the most of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And this is different from pre pandemic how, OP?

They're hiring the public school teachers to do it now.

[Anonymous]

And wealthy kids will have AOPS, prep matters sat tutoring and marks education college counseling. Oh wait, that already happens!

[Anonymous]

Wealthy kids usually don't have heavily involved parents. They often have tutors and are in private school. My kids will not fall behind as we are involved parents who work with our kids. Instead of complaining try it.