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Iowa school voucher scam update: Private schools raising tuition up to 40%. Special ed services to public schools will have a 30 million dollar cut

Small towns actually won’t see much change because they don’t have many school alternatives yet.
 
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I fully admit I don't have answers, but I would love to see some more dynamic options for the higher achievers at all levels and that could include high schoolers spending time at this hypothetical alt-elemenary as well as the "alternative" students coming together for entry level arts, pe or home ec type classes.

This is an area that I think small schools could really set a tone and try out different models, but there would have to be a belief in public ed from the statehouse.
Not sure what I think of this part. It reads like these aren't important. We have curriculum to teach, and in my job, safety is the number one priority for me. Also, like any class, some kids can handle these and others cannot. Depends on the disability and its severity.

Also, I agree with your first part, HOWEVER, again, we have parents pushing for their kids to be in Gifted programs but they are delusional. It drives me nuts when I see kids in that room, but they don't turn in their work in their regular classes.
 

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My favorite line: Pushout can also be costly to students and their families. State voucher funding stops when the student leaves, but the schools may bill families for tuition for the month or even the entire semester

So it IS about the money and not the education...
Pine laughed...which means he still hasn't realized he's wrong in his beliefs.
 
I understand what you are saying and agree we need to work on alternatives, but at the same time some laws restrict our options. We certainly shouldn't go back to the days when SPED kids were taught behind closed doors and didn't interact with the "normal" students, but at the same time I don't think mainstreaming is necessarily the answer either.
Each child is different. Some can handle some classes and can't handle others, for a variety of reasons and disabilities. With Behavior Disorders, it's a crapshoot almost every single day.
 
Small towns actually won’t see much change because they don’t have many school alternatives yet.
Small towns won't see much change as they won't have many school alternatives ever. There are about 5 rural charter schools in Indiana and almost zero new private schools in Indiana outside the urban/suburban areas. The vast majority of new private schools in suburban areas have been quasi-homeschool religious collectives that wanted voucher dollars.
 
Not sure what I think of this part. It reads like these aren't important. We have curriculum to teach, and in my job, safety is the number one priority for me. Also, like any class, some kids can handle these and others cannot. Depends on the disability and its severity.

Also, I agree with your first part, HOWEVER, again, we have parents pushing for their kids to be in Gifted programs but they are delusional. It drives me nuts when I see kids in that room, but they don't turn in their work in their regular classes.

That's not what I mean at all, in fact my life has probably been influenced by these classes more than most. I brought those departments up because, in my experience they were more conducive to offer meaningful work and opportunity to learn across a wider spectrum of achievement. Nothing I wrote should be misconstrued to mean all the time or even always together. I just imagined some programing that can involve higher needs students with the general student body, or better yet the highest achievers, to everyone's benefit.
 
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That's not what I mean at all, in fact my life has probably been influenced by these classes more than most. I brought those departments up because, in my experience they were more conducive to offer meaningful work and opportunity to learn across a wider spectrum of achievement. Nothing I wrote should be misconstrued to mean all the time or even always together. I just imagined some programing that can involve higher needs students with the general student body, or better yet the highest achievers, to everyone's benefit.
All good!
 
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Are people actually surprised that the most populated counties would have the most applicants and receive the most money?
Seems pretty obvious. But, despite that, almost every county in Iowa has people participating.

“Applicants in 96 of Iowa’s 99 counties were approved.”
 
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Apparently, you might be surprised to learn, you don’t even need to go to church, or be religious, to go to private school.
 
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Apparently, you might be surprised to learn, you don’t even need to go to church, or be religious, to go to private school.

I know that. I just take every opportunity to go after the Catholic Church. Its deserved. They earned it with over 2000 years of nonsense.
 
That’s fine. But, the teachers and students at these schools had nothing to do with any of that.
 
I just googled one district. The superintendent of Des Moines public schools makes just over 300k. 306 to be exact. Des Moines public schools have just over 5000 employees. How many corporations of that size have a ceo that makes less than that. I genuinely don’t know. It seems to be a reasonable salary though.

I am going to be honest here; "What else are these guys going to do to make that sort of money in the private sector?".

The truth is most of these guys are middle managers in the real world who likely top out in the low $100k range. We could pay the large school supers far less and there would still be plenty of candidates bc they have no where else to go and THEY KNOW IT. Good luck to these guys trying to compete with the likes of me in the private sector, they wouldn't know how to keep up...most in non-military govt would.
 
Nothing is changing for rural Iowans. They won't notice one thing different. Which is just the way they want it.

It will lead to quicker school consolidation in rural areas. Higher funding will flow towards larger schools on a per student basis once democrats take control and that will come via zero or near zero dollar increases for rural community schools. Why, because our system of govt have become more and more political top to bottom. Blue leaders will cater to their urban voters while republicans cater to their large dollar voters who are more conservative in nature. The rurals will of course vote their values and go conservative even though it will hurt them equally if not more so than their blue politicians. The blues will ignore them bc they don't vote for them and the reds will ignore them bc they just give up their vote to them regardless of what they do.

More school consolidation happens. That means those communities that lose the school in their town will experience further rot, more flight, lower property values. This private voucher deal just speeds rural community death in Iowa as not it will come from both sides.

Instead of consolidating schools these types of communities should be looking first to shared resources of overhead and administrative staffing individuals.
 
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I am going to be honest here; "What else are these guys going to do to make that sort of money in the private sector?".

The truth is most of these guys are middle managers in the real world who likely top out in the low $100k range. We could pay the large school supers far less and there would still be plenty of candidates bc they have no where else to go and THEY KNOW IT. Good luck to these guys trying to compete with the likes of me in the private sector, they wouldn't know how to keep up...most in non-military govt would.

Lol....thats funny.
 
It will lead to quicker school consolidation in rural areas. Higher funding will flow towards larger schools on a per student basis once democrats take control and that will come via zero or near zero dollar increases for rural community schools. Why, because our system of govt have become more and more political top to bottom. Blue leaders will cater to their urban voters while republicans cater to their large dollar voters who are more conservative in nature. The rurals will of course vote their values and go conservative even though it will hurt them equally if not more so than their blue politicians. The blues will ignore them bc they don't vote for them and the reds will ignore them bc they just give up their vote to them regardless of what they do.

More school consolidation happens. That means those communities that lose the school in their town will experience further rot, more flight, lower property values. This private voucher deal just speeds rural community death in Iowa as not it will come from both sides.

Instead of consolidating schools these types of communities should be looking first to shared resources of overhead and administrative staffing individuals.
“You’re lucky you got 2%!” - Kim Reynolds to a small school superintendent.
 
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I am going to be honest here; "What else are these guys going to do to make that sort of money in the private sector?".

The truth is most of these guys are middle managers in the real world who likely top out in the low $100k range. We could pay the large school supers far less and there would still be plenty of candidates bc they have no where else to go and THEY KNOW IT. Good luck to these guys trying to compete with the likes of me in the private sector, they wouldn't know how to keep up...most in non-military govt would.
Would you take 300k a year to deal with that many kids?
 
Would you take 300k a year to deal with that many kids?
At that level he/she are dealing with wackadoo parents. I’m at a good, high scoring school and I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve heard about parents calling “downtown” because they don’t like a building decision.
 
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