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[quote=Anonymous]Bless you.  +++1.

[quote=Anonymous]School administrator here, kind of scratching my head over the numbers you're imagining.

You'll need 2 teachers.  If you've got PK students, you'll need 3 since the law is 2 paid adults in the room at any given time, and of course people will need lunch breaks.  If you start at K, you'll need 2.  One will need substantial experience, the $80,000 figure someone quoted is low, but let's say it works.  The other can be less experienced, so let's say you hire an assistant at $40,000 with benefits.

So $120,000.  Then you'll need space.  Of course there are zoning requirements, and you'll need to be close to a playground.  Let's assume you get lucky and find a church willing to rent you basement space that's already zoned.  One room, with bathroom access that meets code, and two exit routes, and all the other things you require?  Let's be super optimistic and assume you get that for $2,000 a month including utilities.

Then you'll need to pay for insurance, and curriculum, and training the teachers in that curriculum, and books and supplies, and computers, and internet, and phones, and background checks for parents who will be volunteering.  I'm going to way underestimate and say $2,000 a month.  Again, you'd have to hit the jackpot to make that work.

Plus you'll need support with the business and licensing.  You'll need someone to write a curricula (even if you use a purchased one, you'll still need to write it up to present it), and cut paychecks, and handle zoning issues, and . . . Maybe $1,000 a month.

Now, at $7,000 a year, with costs that are underestimated, you've got 26 kids.  Plus you need some kind of a cushion, in case kids pull out or you kick them out.  So, you've got a class size that's bigger than the public schools, only the teachers aren't coached or supported in anyway.  They don't have the ability to share their lesson plans in anyway, they're carrying that burden by themselves, but wait?  With no art, or music, or PE there's also no planning time.  You also don't have the ability to divide kids up into smaller groups with skilled teachers because there's no reading specialist, ELL teacher, special educator etc . . . You can't send half the kids to recess with the assistant, because liability won't let you, not with streets to cross to get to a playground.  So your instructional ratio will be very high.

In addition, teachers will need to deal with all discipline issues.  These will be significant.  Without the creative outlet, stuck in a crowded single room, you will have problems, and your options for handling them will be limited.  You aren't renting hall space, so teachers can't even pull a kid into the hall for a conversation, much less let the kids take a break in the nurse's office, or send them somewhere to calm down.  So, while you might conceivably have fewer behavior problems than public schools (not sure I believe that, but I'll assume you're right), all of those behavior problems would be happening right there in the classroom, and with the teacher dealing with them all instruction is going to be interrupted over and over.

So, let's recap.  You're wondering if it's a good idea to spend $7,000 so that your child can avoid art, music, PE, small class sizes, natural lighting ('cause you're in the basement, remember), individualized attention, well planned instruction and poor children.

I think you should do this.  30 less "snowflakes" with bigoted idiot parents in my public school sounds like a great idea to me![/quote][/quote]

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