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My experiences with my kids have only deepened my belief in school choice

Everyone has a school choice. The first choice is whether or not to have a child, and understanding what you can afford. I paid for Catholic school for my son for 13 years, while paying school taxes at the same time.

I do know the Catholic school my son attended in Florida had voucher kids. The school in NC didn't have a voucher option, but they gave reduced, and sometimes free tuition based on need. Nuns ran both schools, and they were passionate about not turning away kids because of economic need.

The parents of the voucher kids in Florida were very open about how grateful they were for that option. Nobody had to start a conversation on that topic. Those parents cared about their children.
 
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Again it's comparable. Every house doesn't need a different type of fire service. They all basically need some men with a big hose to show up and put the fire out.

A lot of kids need different types of schools.
That is where you are wrong. The vast majority of clients I work with have to have action plans drawn up with the local fire department in order to successfully fight a fire in their home. These plans include how to access the property, where additional private water supplies will be placed and accessed, special considerations for certain areas within the home, etc.

These plans are kept at the local FD and have to be pulled when an alarm is sounded, slowing public FD response. Should the primary responding be out on another call the next responding may not have immediate access to these plans. The homeowner next has to depend on the FD, in a stressful situation, to follow the predescribed plan. All of this goes away if the homeowner was able to employ their own private fire fighters via a voucher.

Granted the clients I work with are primarily all within the top 2% in terms of wealth and their homes have special needs. That said, fire fighting is not just showing up with a big hose and in fact that big hose may cause more problems/damage for specific properties.
 
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But the leftist mantra of "public schools or pay for private education yourself" would have guaranteed both of my son's would be in assisted living when we pass.
And - once again - charter schools operate with public funds. They ARE public schools in that regard. They can not charge tuition to attend. If you want a private education, you should pay for that yourself just like parents who want their kids on traveling teams for sports. The public school shouldn't pay for that just because they offer public school sports teams that don't meet a parent's expectations.
 
That's true! And my eldest son learned ZERO sight words from August of '19 to March '20.

Question, how often did you work with him at home?

My youngest is in 1st grade. Last year (K) and this year we practiced sight words. Then 2nd semester she had to read a book and we counted how many mistakes she made. She was meeting the Spring sight words mark in the Fall.

Did you practice with your son at home? I feel like some of that blame should fall on you too if the answer is no
 
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Question, how often did you work with him at home?

My youngest is in 1st grade. Last year (K) and this year we practiced sight words. Then 2nd semester she had to read a book and we counted how many mistakes she made. She was meeting the Spring sight words mark in the Fall.

Did you practice with your son at home? I feel like some of that blame should fall on you too if the answer is no

If the school sent something home for us to work with him on we certainly would.

Again not only was he not learning anything but the school never sounded any alarm as to him falling behind. We hand delivered him to his classroom every single day so we saw the teacher every single day. She never communicated to us any problems or anything we should work on.
 
I don't think different schools can necessarily be compared as to which one is better than the other. While some are like that. Many are just different means to the end of educating children based on the different needs of the child.

I mean there is a good chance that we are sending 1 or 2 kids to public next year and one to online charter school. It's not because one is better than the other. It's just different needs.
BTW, my no-pic wife tutors struggling K-2 readers - results guaranteed. 34 years in education, MA in Reading Ed, Orten-Gillingham certified. $70/hr once a week or $60/hr twice a week.

You might have to travel, though. ;)
 
BTW, my no-pic wife tutors struggling K-2 readers - results guaranteed. 34 years in education, MA in Reading Ed, Orten-Gillingham certified. $70/hr once a week or $60/hr twice a week.

You might have to travel, though. ;)
None of my business, but it seems she could charge a lot more for her tutor service, especially considering her years of experience. Just my opinion.
 
I don't think different schools can necessarily be compared as to which one is better than the other. While some are like that. Many are just different means to the end of educating children based on the different needs of the child.

I mean there is a good chance that we are sending 1 or 2 kids to public next year and one to online charter school. It's not because one is better than the other. It's just different needs.
Your perceived needs. What happens when there are more requests to attend a school than openings? Who chooses then?
 
Your perceived needs. What happens when there are more requests to attend a school than openings? Who chooses then?

The school would likely have to choose them although they should defend that choice via reasons that pertain to academics.

I don't know that I've seen this become a problem.
 
Public schools are in desperate need of being fixed. It seems there are many levels to this problem. First, schools/admin/teachers need to be free to solve issues on their own. The focus should be on educating kids and that includes discipline, so litigation needs to be completely removed from the decision making process (or at least mostly removed). Covering your ass should not be good enough anymore from an admin standpoint.
 
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If the school sent something home for us to work with him on we certainly would.

No offense but that is a bullshit excuse. Google "Kindergarten Sight Words" and you'll get plenty of choices. Start with one and work from there. Parents are to blame to. Especially if you're going to stand back and point fingers at the teacher.
 
But they should be forced at the same time to subsidize someone else’s ‘choice’, reducing what they can afford to choose?

This is exactly what I was going to say
How about those of us with no children or children who are now adults, do we have to subsidize people with school age children reducing the amount of money we have for things that provide services to us?
 
No offense but that is a bullshit excuse. Google "Kindergarten Sight Words" and you'll get plenty of choices. Start with one and work from there. Parents are to blame to. Especially if you're going to stand back and point fingers at the teacher.

The teacher should take some sort of lead on this should they not?

We had no idea he was even behind til we started online school.
 
How about those of us with no children or children who are now adults, do we have to subsidize people with school age children reducing the amount of money we have for things that provide services to us?

I’m joining that club in less than a month. Yes, I will have to live with it and no I don’t care where the parents want their kids to go to school.

Caveat: The wife is a teacher at a private school
 
I’m joining that club in less than a month. Yes, I will have to live with it and no I don’t care where the parents want their kids to go to school.

Caveat: The wife is a teacher at a private school
I want to help fund education, but I want it to go to public schools that are required to teach everyone and must follow the rules set forth by the Department of Education.
 
The school would likely have to choose them although they should defend that choice via reasons that pertain to academics.

I don't know that I've seen this become a problem.
Why academics? You're suggesting "smart" kids get first choice. Why? Aren't the "dumb" kids in more need?

You haven't seen this as a problem because we haven't adopted "school choice" in the manner you're suggesting.
 
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No offense but that is a bullshit excuse. Google "Kindergarten Sight Words" and you'll get plenty of choices. Start with one and work from there. Parents are to blame to. Especially if you're going to stand back and point fingers at the teacher.
Agreed. This is a classic case of "why didn't the schools make my kid smart?". There are many reasons why.
 
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How has that gone so far?
Overall pretty well. We are one of the few first world nations that endeavors to educate all children. We have generally increased the knowledge base of our citizens and smoothed out the regional differences. On a long arc view, our public education system has generated a populace that has innovated and provided economic growth for many.

We do continue to have a problem that more and more people don’t value the educational opportunities provided to them.
 
The teacher should take some sort of lead on this should they not?

We had no idea he was even behind til we started online school.

Sure the teacher should but so should you as his parent. Again, that's a terrible thing to admit that you didn't know your child was falling behind until online school? Did you not think to ask for progress reports on how things were going? I couldn't imagine not having some type of interaction with my child's teacher especially if I'm not hearing anything from them proactively. No PTCs in Kindergarten?
 
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Everybody wants their kids to get the best education available, they want their kids to get straight A's, they want them to have the choice of every prestigious college they can dream up, and they don't want to pay for it. But most importantly, they want to blame everybody but themselves for why their kids fall short of those expectations
 
Everybody wants their kids to get the best education available, they want their kids to get straight A's, they want them to have the choice of every prestigious college they can dream up, and they don't want to pay for it. But most importantly, they want to blame everybody but themselves for why their kids fall short of those expectations

Hey we haven't heard from Little Johnny's teacher all year long and he seems to be struggling with picking up words he should be able to read. Oh well, I'll just let it play out. Probably all part of the grand plan.

WHAT THE F DO YOU MEAN HE'S STRUGGLING!?!? I BLAME YOU!?!?
 
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Hey we haven't heard from Little Johnny's teacher all year long and he seems to be struggling with picking up words he should be able to read. Oh well, I'll just let it play out. Probably all part of the grand plan.

WHAT THE F DO YOU MEAN HE'S STRUGGLING!?!? I BLAME YOU!?!?

If only school choice and remote learning existed, the kids might be able to understand the box score and who won last night's baseball game. They must just be playing a joke on me when they don't know which team has 5 runs and which has 4 in the top left corner of the screen
 
That's true! And my eldest son learned ZERO sight words from August of '19 to March '20. And it wasn't like the school was telling us he was behind academically either.

But it also shows why the Republicans have gotten this right. The Dems baulk at public funds going to private schools and the baulk at charter schools. They tell you either accept the school district you are placed in or pay for private school.

Well I can't afford private school. Online school likely saved both of my son's shots at living independently in the future. Because I can't imagine there is much you can qualify for without a high school diploma other than fast food. And my kids where not going to end up on the diploma track in public school. Even if we had gotten them to where they could have gone into mainstream classes by that point they would have been 3 or 4 years behind their grade level and would have been screwed.
No. Republicans have not gotten education right. Nope. No. No way.
 
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If the school sent something home for us to work with him on we certainly would.

Again not only was he not learning anything but the school never sounded any alarm as to him falling behind. We hand delivered him to his classroom every single day so we saw the teacher every single day. She never communicated to us any problems or anything we should work on.
So you only worked with your struggling child when the school sent you something?? Dude, this is somewhat on your wife and you. Parents need to spend time working with their kids without prompts from the school.
 
Are you a product of a private school? What about your wife? I bet the majority HROT posters received their education from public schools.

I went to public school until college. My wife spent most of her time growing up in public school with a couple years in private. My daughter spent half of middle school in private. She probably would’ve stayed if we hadn’t moved.
 
Overall pretty well. We are one of the few first world nations that endeavors to educate all children. We have generally increased the knowledge base of our citizens and smoothed out the regional differences. On a long arc view, our public education system has generated a populace that has innovated and provided economic growth for many.

We do continue to have a problem that more and more people don’t value the educational opportunities provided to them.

You sound higher on our populace being educated than most. You should stick around for one of those debates about how unintelligent folks think a majority of the opposite political part is. Quite a humdinger.
 
How about those of us with no children or children who are now adults, do we have to subsidize people with school age children reducing the amount of money we have for things that provide services to us?
Yeah! And those of us with our own insurance! Why do we have to subsidize people who chose to have iPhones over health insurance? Next thing you’ll say is if they like their doctor they should get to keep it!
 
You can all argue about school choice (again), but you’re skipping over the main point in the OP. That the public school did a terrible job with his kids. And, the charter school was superior.
 
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You can all argue about school choice (again), but you’re skipping over the main point in the OP. That the public school did a terrible job with his kids. And, the charter school was superior.

Charter schools are public schools.
The change was delivery method (online vs in person) not type of school (traditional public, charter public, or private)
You are skipping the part where the OP did a terrible job with his own kids.
 
Charter schools are charter schools.
The OP thought public school would be able to educate his children effectively.
I guess you think public schools are unable to do that on their own.
 
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