Reply to Is the obsession with private schools justified?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It really depends on where you live and your zoned school district. People that live in the Whitman or Langley areas have very different considerations than people living in DC or the exurbs. The quality of education really isn't an issue at highly-resourced, wealthy public schools. But if you are not zoned for those schools, yeah, private will often be the better choice. [/quote]

This isn't entirely true, especially where schools are centrally run on a county level.  Yes, most of the kids are coming from well resourced homes.  You still will get kids with significant disabilities, for example, autism or down's syndrome, being mainsteamed with an aide.  My kids were in a 10/10 best schools, upper middle class/wealthy school.   Every year in elementary, there were a minimum of two to three kids being mainstreamed with aides in their class.  You still have kids with emotional trauma and related behavioral issiues. You still have teachers who are forced to teach towards state assessment tests.  You still have a central office churning out a curriculum that leaves teacher's little room to deviate.  You still have a tenure system that prevents schools from firing teachers who have checked out.  You still have a system that does next to nothing to reward exemplary teachers.  You still have a movement away from tracking and g&t programs on equity grounds.  You still have a system that allocates little time towards recess, and doesn't allow for much learning by doing.

All public schools systems are being hit hard by Trump's budget cuts to education.  Our local public school system is getting rid of school librarians as a budget cutting measure, and encouraging early teacher retirements to replace them with cheaper, younger teachers.[/quote]
Ah yes, heaven forbid our children have to share a classroom with children who have autism or down's syndrome, or have suffered emotional trauma, it's not like that mirrors the real world in any way.  And teaching to standards could never be beneficial, our children will never have to learn how to study for a standardized test.  I could go on, though I'm not quite sure what to make of one sentence indicating that the public system prevents firing enough experienced teachers, followed shortly after by a sentence indicating that too many teachers are being fired.[/quote]

It takes a huge toll on the teachers-- both  to have such a diverse group of students to teach and to really have no recourse with many behavioral issues.  Our district has only one special ed only school left and the parents have fought so hard to maintain its status.  It always comes down to money and not what is best for the kids.  On the behavioral side, I don't know what the answer is, but the current system where the teacher is forced to keep the students in their classroom no matter what is not a good solution.

Its hard for you to understand that the tenure system makes it impossible to fire teaches based on performance but budget cuts are encouraging teachers to depart on the basis of years of experience (irrespective of performance)?  It's not a particulalry diffiuclt concept to understand.[/quote]

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