Funny how I chose to send my kid to a better school and it's not called a choice. Sure felt like a choice since I had more than one option. Whatever. I'll take quality schools over garbage schools. I leave you to choose garbage schools for your kids if you wish.
Issues in Education
- Thread starter Huckleberry
- Start date
Funny how I chose to send my kid to a better school and it's not called a choice. Sure felt like a choice since I had more than one option. Whatever. I'll take quality schools over garbage schools. I leave you to choose garbage schools for your kids if you wish.
While my elementary school years sucked, we moved to the Eastern Shore later, and I ended up going to Fairhope HS. Better quality comparatively than what Mobile County had to offer. Lily's experience was many times better.
I’m happy that you were able to send your kid to a better school - a better public school. I support that 100%, though for some people not as well off transportation can be an issue. My point is that simply calling something school choice doesn’t make it a good thing. The current movement smacks of anti-public school sentiment much more than it does of benefiting the student. Saying that one is for school choice while ignoring the inherent problems in the system doesn’t help anyone.
Yeah, my beef with public schools began in the 5th grade, when I was told that I could no longer go to school with my friends. And was redirected to a rural, substandard school way out in the sticks. No alternative.
Some in my neighborhood tried to use false addresses or uncles/aunts who lived in the school district. But there was always the neighborhood Karen (in those days, we called them "Narcs") who would turn you in.
I'm not for tearing down public schools or promoting private schools. I'm for promoting good schools, regardless of what type they are. My wife and I made the best decision we could for Lily. I trust you to do the same for your kids. And I extend that choice to everyone else. I'm more than comfortable letting people have the choice to make good or bad decisions. I've seen far too many well-funded garbage schools that are allowed to continue existing because to do something different is "a war on public schools." That's the battle cry of fools and the dishonest. Bad schools should fail.
Ah, the Karens. Where would we be without roving bands of chunky busy-bodies using there self-appointed authority to enforce good order and discipline (as they see it)?
Here is an example of how to teach American history.
If schools across the country taught the history of the Southwest this way, there would be no "stolen land" garbage or the people who wished to slander the United States would be hooted off the stage.
This video is entertaining, it does not side-step the issue of chattel slavery, and it shows the American side of the story.
This video is entertaining, it does not side-step the issue of chattel slavery, and it shows the American side of the story.
Highly entertaining as well as informative. This "reality based" view of history, with a little humor mixed in, is how we should teach it. I get so sick of the revisionist view where societies that did not adhere to today's politically correct viewpoint of oppressor versus oppressed were evil and nothing good every came out of it.
That was great. My first masters degree was in Latin American Studies, and having lived in Texas for several years, I'm familiar with the history of our relationship with Mexico. But, it's been a while and that was a really good refresher. The modern self-loathing rant about stolen lands and colonialism is a lazy as it is stupid. No context is provided, much less any actual history.
I've been in a few debates about "giving the land back." I always ask, "To whom?" The answer is always, "Mexico." Funny, the Mexicans displaced Spanish, who displaced various native tribes. Go to any historical site in South Texas and you'll learn about the various native tribes that once lived there, who displaced those that came before them, who were displace by those that came after them. Repeat for hundreds of years. You'll go through dozens of tribes only academics have heard of before you'll get to the more familiar ones like the Comanches.
Oddly enough about people world- and history-wide: they tend to move around. Go to any patch of land on the planet where people are, and there will have been people who were there earlier. Control of any land has been churned countless times. But, the self-loathing, American-history-hating crowd only applies their razor-sharp historical knowledge on the lands within the US. They don't apply it anywhere else. In many cases, it takes a lot of expensive education to be extremely dumb.
Last edited:
I have no problem with hanging portaits of Lincoln and Washington in schools. That said, merely hanging the portraits isn't going to accomplish much, save perhaps to enrich whoever produces the portraits.
As Huck said, it's merely performative. Portraits will not install any principles into the students, not will it teach them of the nation's history.
Calling public schools “well-funded” ignores the reality on the ground. The lowest-performing schools are often those serving the poorest children — students who face hunger, family instability, and community trauma — yet these schools consistently receive the least financial support. They aren’t failing because educators defend mediocrity; they’re struggling because the odds are stacked against them.
Vouchers don’t fix that. The claim that giving everyone a voucher creates equal opportunity sounds appealing, but it’s false. Private schools receiving vouchers can — and often do — reject students with disabilities, language needs, or behavior challenges. Those children, along with the ones who can’t afford transportation or tuition gaps, remain in the public system — which now has even fewer resources to serve them.
And blaming teacher unions for systemic inequities is simply misdirection. The resentment toward unions has more to do with politics than education. In reality, unions are among the few groups still fighting for manageable class sizes, competitive pay, and the funding stability that high-need schools depend on.
If the goal is truly “good schools for all,” the answer isn’t to weaken the one system that takes every child who walks through its doors. It’s to fund it fairly, support it fully, and stop pretending that “choice” alone can replace commitment.
The video I posted upthread already addresses your misunderstanding on the subject. The Stossel video is hardly a revelation to me. I've known about these issues when I started researching this some 35 years ago.
It's not a lack of money that's the problem. It's spending that money on things other than a quality education. Government administrative bloat is as much of a problem in education as it is everywhere else in government. Administrators who are incompetent, don't really care about the students, and focus on their own power are just as much of a problem in education as it is everywhere else in government. Unions that focus on increasing their own power to the detriment of the students is hardly a shock.
Some examples of incompetence can be seen during COVID. Many school systems - usually inner city - didn't even require classes to be attended for two years. And then they graduated their students anyway. And the quality of education sucked to begin with. That's criminal incompetence. You think all the education bureaucrats and union leaders still got paid while failing their students?
Many school systems won't allow a child to fail but not by redoubling efforts to reach the child. They just fake it. Earn a 0; get a C; graduate with minimal skills. It's a factory of failure.
My daughter attended Catholic school until 7th grade. The quality was much better than the public school. The cost was far cheaper. Of course, I had to pay for both. You can't not reward a failing school and its leaders, right? And Lily's school had its share of troubled and disabled students. So, your argument that private schools cherry pick their students is not accurate.
Back in the day, I dated several young women who were teachers. Across various states and bad school systems, they all had the same complaint. The rules are set up to make it difficult for intelligent kids to succeed. They were trapped, and it would be only a matter of time before the talent and work ethic was beat out of them. Endless government/union failure.
Why is it that the Left's only solution to anything is to just throw more money at the problem? It's never to find a better solution, even when a better alternative is already in existence. It's always more government ... more spending ... more taxes ... same trash results ... "I guess we need to spend more." Giving more money to the same incompetent people is not going to make said people competent.
Homeschooling hits record numbers
Last academic year, homeschooling grew at nearly three times the average rate it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research.
reason.com
NYT Gift Article
...
No doubt the causes of the mental health crisis are multifaceted. Some disorders tend to run in families. Screens have thoroughly invaded childhood, supplanting the sleep, exercise and socializing in person that can ward off depression and anxiety.
And yet no one in political leadership — or our broader national conversation about mental health — seems to be asking about the environment where children spend most of their waking hours: school.
There is growing evidence that school itself is essential to understanding why so many children seem to be struggling. It can be a cause of stress that exacerbates anxiety or depression; but just as importantly and less frequently acknowledged, it is often where disorder presents, leading many children — and their parents — down the path toward a diagnosis.
The experience of school has changed rapidly in recent generations. Starting in the 1980s, a metrics-obsessed regime took over American education and profoundly altered the expectations placed on children, up and down the class ladder. In fact, it has altered the experience of childhood itself.
This era of policymaking has largely ebbed, with disappointing results. Math and reading levels are at their lowest in decades. The rules put in place by both political parties were well-meaning, but in trying to make more children successful, they also circumscribed more tightly who could be served by school at all.
“What’s happening is, instead of saying, ‘We need to fix the schools,’ the message is, ‘We need to fix the kids,’” said Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College and the author of “Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.”
“The track has become narrower and narrower, so a greater range of people don’t fit that track anymore,” he said. “And the result is, we want to call it a disorder.”
America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?
From A.D.H.D. to anxiety, disorders have risen as the expectations of childhood have changed....
No doubt the causes of the mental health crisis are multifaceted. Some disorders tend to run in families. Screens have thoroughly invaded childhood, supplanting the sleep, exercise and socializing in person that can ward off depression and anxiety.
And yet no one in political leadership — or our broader national conversation about mental health — seems to be asking about the environment where children spend most of their waking hours: school.
There is growing evidence that school itself is essential to understanding why so many children seem to be struggling. It can be a cause of stress that exacerbates anxiety or depression; but just as importantly and less frequently acknowledged, it is often where disorder presents, leading many children — and their parents — down the path toward a diagnosis.
The experience of school has changed rapidly in recent generations. Starting in the 1980s, a metrics-obsessed regime took over American education and profoundly altered the expectations placed on children, up and down the class ladder. In fact, it has altered the experience of childhood itself.
This era of policymaking has largely ebbed, with disappointing results. Math and reading levels are at their lowest in decades. The rules put in place by both political parties were well-meaning, but in trying to make more children successful, they also circumscribed more tightly who could be served by school at all.
“What’s happening is, instead of saying, ‘We need to fix the schools,’ the message is, ‘We need to fix the kids,’” said Peter Gray, a research professor at Boston College and the author of “Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.”
“The track has become narrower and narrower, so a greater range of people don’t fit that track anymore,” he said. “And the result is, we want to call it a disorder.”
I saw this and was gubsmacked.
55% of Millennials believe whites invented slavery.
And then this:
69% of black women believe whites invented slavery.
What the heck is being taught in schools? Or do we chalk that up to demagogues engaging in malicious slander of their country in an effort to extort something?
55% of Millennials believe whites invented slavery.
And then this:
69% of black women believe whites invented slavery.
What the heck is being taught in schools? Or do we chalk that up to demagogues engaging in malicious slander of their country in an effort to extort something?
Attachments
My wife and I went through the McDonald's drive-thru window, and I gave the cashier a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter.
She said, 'You gave me too much money.'
I said, 'Yes, I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar back.'
She sighed and went to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request.
I did so, and he handed me back the 25c, and said, 'We're sorry, but we don’t do that kind of thing.'
The cashier then returned 75 cents in change.
Do not confuse the people at McDonald's.
She said, 'You gave me too much money.'
I said, 'Yes, I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar back.'
She sighed and went to get the manager, who asked me to repeat my request.
I did so, and he handed me back the 25c, and said, 'We're sorry, but we don’t do that kind of thing.'
The cashier then returned 75 cents in change.
Do not confuse the people at McDonald's.
I've posted this before, but my wife and I owned a condo in Vail, CO for about ten years. The lodge nextdoor had a small ski shop in its lowest level and I'd discovered I'd misplaced my ski glove liners. No problem, I thought; I'll just run next door and buy a pair at the little ski shop. When I entered, the look on the face of the clerk was dejection. I told him what I wanted and he couldn't make the sale because the computer system was down (this was early 90s). The cash register door was open, money in it . I said why don't I just pay you, you write it down and enter it when the system comes back up. Still looking sad, he said "But I wouldn't know how much change to give you." Calculating the price plus sales tax in my head, I gave him the correct change and how much to allocate to sales tax. He brightened up and said "I could do that!" So we did and went on my way contemplating that a young 20s something could not do simple multiplication and subtraction in his head...
The truth is that if you have never done a year in education then you just don’t know what you are talking about in the way you think. Yes you can date someone who is in it, yes you can be a parent, and yes you can attend all the school board meetings you want but nothing gives you a real clear look at the problems until you have lived it.
1) funding won’t solve the problems. You could realistically give all the money a place like Saraland has and put it into Blount down the highway but it isn’t going to magically make Blount a top 30 HS in the state of Alabama. The socio-economic and the administration still are going to remain the same and it won’t matter how much money you pour into it.
2) School Choice in theory works but in practice it really depends. Too many of these charter schools that have been championed as alternatives under many school choice initiatives have been shown to have weak knees and are more about making a quick buck than actually educating kids.
Private schools are also not the saving grace that parents of private schools make them out to be either. How can they be when it’s teachers on average make 26k a year. The truth is most of these public alternatives teach to test in order to look good on paper. But their students can’t usually explain anything past a DOK 2 question.
Home schooling… why anyone believes this should be funded with taxpayer dollars is beyond me. I can understand private schools to a certain degree because there are some horrible public school areas in which a private school is the only solution but homeschooling is just a different kind of argument. I’m not knocking it’s merits because some parents are very well equipped to teach but there are too many that just take their children out of schools because they get tired of their kid getting them called to the school because parents simply refuse to raise their kids at home.
3) There really isn’t any clear solution to fixing the education system. But choosing to throw money at it or cutting everything on a certain threshold are not pragmatic solutions. The problem is that we tried to have uniformity in our quest to compete with other countries. What we found is that we have millions of unique school systems with very unique problems. The one size fits all approach just doesn’t work.
But if there were ways to fix most problems in education then I would say stop making administration so dependent on data and hold parents accountable for their children. Because teachers are not as powerful and supported in the equation as many believe.
1) funding won’t solve the problems. You could realistically give all the money a place like Saraland has and put it into Blount down the highway but it isn’t going to magically make Blount a top 30 HS in the state of Alabama. The socio-economic and the administration still are going to remain the same and it won’t matter how much money you pour into it.
2) School Choice in theory works but in practice it really depends. Too many of these charter schools that have been championed as alternatives under many school choice initiatives have been shown to have weak knees and are more about making a quick buck than actually educating kids.
Private schools are also not the saving grace that parents of private schools make them out to be either. How can they be when it’s teachers on average make 26k a year. The truth is most of these public alternatives teach to test in order to look good on paper. But their students can’t usually explain anything past a DOK 2 question.
Home schooling… why anyone believes this should be funded with taxpayer dollars is beyond me. I can understand private schools to a certain degree because there are some horrible public school areas in which a private school is the only solution but homeschooling is just a different kind of argument. I’m not knocking it’s merits because some parents are very well equipped to teach but there are too many that just take their children out of schools because they get tired of their kid getting them called to the school because parents simply refuse to raise their kids at home.
3) There really isn’t any clear solution to fixing the education system. But choosing to throw money at it or cutting everything on a certain threshold are not pragmatic solutions. The problem is that we tried to have uniformity in our quest to compete with other countries. What we found is that we have millions of unique school systems with very unique problems. The one size fits all approach just doesn’t work.
But if there were ways to fix most problems in education then I would say stop making administration so dependent on data and hold parents accountable for their children. Because teachers are not as powerful and supported in the equation as many believe.
Texas SBOE appears poised to require Bible readings in public schools
The GOP-led State Board of Education on Wednesday showed support for a plan that would make Texas the first state in the country to mandate all public school students read passages of the Bible.
While members ultimately punted a final decision until the spring following heated public testimony, Republicans on the board generally agreed the passages should be deemed required reading, and some even suggested adding more.
“This is really building a scaffolding that culminates in a foundation in Western literature,” said Tom Maynard, a Republican representing Central Texas.
One Republican cast the proposal as a religious win.
“This would bring the Word of God back into schools in a meaningful way for the first time in decades,” Brandon Hall, a North Texas Republican, wrote on Facebook before the discussion began Wednesday. “We need prayer warriors to intercede for this vote.”
This is really what it's all about. Grooming everyone's children to accept their religious beliefs.
What I don’t get is the double standard amongst republicans. Yeah the left can be looney as sin but the right has a way of “do as i say and not as I do” type of mentality that defies any rational logic.
They are constantly worried about gender studies, what is taught in history class, CRT, and politics being discussed in class but they are constantly trying to push the Bible as a course or as a staple in public schools. It is beyond one of the most hypocritical things I have ever seen in my life to see this nonsense play out.
Let’s be honest… the right is all about fear mongering and perception when it comes to public education because deep down they know they don’t have a clue of where to start in fixing the system but they have to appear like they know.
Trending content
Latest threads
-
ESPN: Source: ESPN's No. 1 2027 RB Spell picks Georgia- Started by TideFans Reporter
- Replies: 0
-
ESPN: FSU OC Malzahn retires after 35 years in coaching
- Started by TideFans Reporter
- Replies: 0
-
ESPN: 17 more ex-NC State athletes join abuse lawsuit
- Started by TideFans Reporter
- Replies: 1
-
ESPN: Sources: Irish set to add Henry to coaching staff
- Started by TideFans Reporter
- Replies: 0
-
-
ESPN: Miller's two-round 2026 NFL mock draft: Which Seni...
- Started by TideFans Reporter
- Replies: 0