Reply to Is FCPS overhyped? even top rated schools seem meh?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My oldest attends a NOVA Catholic high school (certainly a sports-focused environment) where the class sizes are reasonable and we don't get phone calls or emails about poor performance. The thing to remember is that the kids are in high school now so they're expected to manage their work load and be proactive in reaching out to the teacher for help if they need it. 
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Ew. Any public school comment always brings out the supposed non MAGA Catholics. [/quote]

DP. I’m not a MAGA Catholic, but I am a person who has taught in both public and Catholic high schools. They simply don’t compare. In public, I was tasked with performing miracles with no resources. I burned out. In private, I am given the resources and respect to do my job well.

It’s about teacher support and teacher morale, and the publics aren’t doing well on either front right now.

And this has nothing to do with politics or religion. It’s about resources. [/quote]

Interesting.  Can you please elaborate more on resources with specific examples? What resources did parochial schools provide specifically that public schools do not? Or was this mostly smaller class sizes? Was it 2 teachers per class (teacher and assistant)?  Was it involvement and help of parent volunteers in each classroom? We had "class parents" in early elementary out of state (public) and volunteering was very much expected, although led to a lot of grumbling between FT working moms vs. SAHMs.  Our class sizes were large and in early elementary there was at first an assistant per each class to help out the teacher.  Later it went downhill and assistants disappeared. 
[/quote]

Of COURSE. It has to do with religion.  That is why the schools exist.  They offer discounted tuition to clergy members. The entire premise of the school is based on religion and people paying to have their kids go to the school because of the religion.

Of COURSE your workload is better.  You aren’t in a union. You get little retirement.  You don’t have to pay for children with profound disabilities because  the weird intrepretation of the Bible religious schools use says that you should pay to be educated and not take care of everyone.

You aren’t using resources better.  You are relying on private money and church money to pay for your salary and “resources.”

[/quote]

You clearly have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. Your post isn’t even comprehensible to me.

From what I can gather from your far-reaching post:

1. High schools don’t offer discounted tuition to parish members. K-8 schools often do.

2. My school is less than 50% Catholic, so your argument that people pick it for faith purposes is invalid.

3. I don’t remotely get your union argument. You are correct; I do not have a union. Public schools do. Wouldn’t that mean their workload would be better than mine cause they have an organization fighting for it? Yet it’s the opposite. My workload is better without the union.

4. Retirement: my work contributes to my retirement. I no longer contribute to a pension, but my retirement is growing quite well because of these contributions.

5. Your argument about “profound  disabilities” is incoherent, but we (Catholic schools) do take students with severe disabilities. And we serve them well. We even have an entire wing of our school devoted to special education services.

So my point stands: teachers in private Catholic schools have access to stronger resources. I’ll add that is, at least in part, because we don’t have to waste resources on a central office full of people avoiding classrooms.

I’m not sure you have sufficient access 
to reliable experiences or information to make your arguments. [/quote]

My argument boils down to your funding stream.  It comes from private money and church money.  Parents pay your salary and the church pays some as well.

Your point: “Teachers have access to stronger resources” and that is THE most OBVIOUS thing in the world because parents are PAYING and the church is PAYING for your school. You aren’t relying on tax payer money and you are having to deal with tax payers who don’t want to pay taxes as a funding stream.

The school claims to be Christian and want to help all, but in actuality you are sitting in a school where you aren’t using a collective strategy in our society to educate kids.  You are using a capitalistic, private pay structure to pay for the school. You aren’t helping all of society, you are just helping those who can pay or the church deems they want to pay for (if they are scholarship students).  Using a capitalistic structure to pay for academic (and religious) training instead of acting on the principles in the Bible and trying to help ALL kids is ridiculous and hypocritical.

Unions don’t help with pay as much as they provide a lawyer if a teacher is ever accused by a student of inappropriate behavior.  We all know how the Catholic Church handles that, so you are right, you don’t need one.

You claim it is central office that is the difference.  You have a central office and it in part falls under the  church as they help with the grounds keeping, and can provide . You don’t necessarily see how the priest is paid, or the custodians because that sometimes comes from the church part, not just the school.

Please link me to Catholic run ABA centers or centers for profoundly disabled children (life skills curriculum)

You can’t brag about “better resources” when you are charging tuition. Really simple.  It is self explanatory that you would have better resources. Not because of better management, but because you are charging people to use the school and have church donations to help you out.

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I am no particular fan of Catholic schools but you don’t understand economics. Catholic schools may be supported by private funds, but they have better outcomes with far less per capita spending.

Now some of the per capita gap may be explained by the fact that the public schools have to take in students the Catholic schools do not. But even with this factor no one can plausibly claim the public schools here are economically efficient. The outcomes obtained for the funds expended matter. One only need look at my hometown of Chicago with over 30k per student in spending and some of the worst outcomes in the nation. Yes they have difficult students but also have schools built for 2000 with 75 students in them. Demand of Catholic education is over the top in the city. The Catholic Church does not fund these schools very well, contrary to your conclusions.

Moreover, as regards special needs or special ed students, there is almost universal agreement that  teachers and programs are exceedingly random in quality. This isn’t unique to FCPS but lots of public funding alone doesn’t answer the mail. Special ed is a highly people dependent enterprise and attracting and retaining talent can’t be easy, no matter public or private. It is not a political concept  to find a way to hire and retain special ed talent without bureaucracy getting in the way. In a very difficult job work conditions often matter as much as pay, although that is needed too. If a school has this dynamic right public or private many are going to send their kids there.

I am a poor public school grad. Went to excellent universities and am very well off now and would never have entertained private schools for a moment for my kids (they ended up at Princeton through no effort on my part). My poor single mother was all about being tough and adaptable - my job for school  - not hers. Public school was a wellspring of opportunity.

I never had any complaints about FCPS. It was my kids’ job to navigate through it. My interaction with school personnel were favorable.

This having been said I can see where private schools can work for some. But questions of fit for a student have virtually nothing to do with the points you raise. [/quote]

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