A sobering look at Georgia's educational budget woes

I also should clarify - it's the legacy/benefit costs that are badly hurting our school districts - not the fact that the majority of the costs are labor-related. That, obviously, is a given.

Also, I think the "smaller school is better" theory is bunk. I went to a campus that had two high schools with a combined enrollment of about 5,000. Pooling the resources allowed the district to offer an award-winning radio station (that I was part of), an award-winning newspaper (that I was part of), a national-caliber band program (that my sister was part of), a theater program that was good enough to travel overseas, a farm, a child-care center (for training students who wanted to eventually teach) ... The list goes on and on. The variety of classes was impressive, too - something that smaller schools can't offer.

When I graduated, I was more than ready for college. I sure didn't feel intimidated when I went to college because I attended such a large campus with so many opportunities and so many good classes and teachers.

 

You're not the type of student currently being failed by the educational system. You would have succeeded in any educational environment, so your success in that particular environment doesn't have any significance in the grander scheme.

 

Micropolitan - Many districts in our area also have schools of choice programs. The reality is that each child has a dollar sign attached to their heads. It's been interesting to see the shifts in enrollment. The better districts are getting more kids - to the victors go the financial spoils.

 

Because as should be obvious to us all, the way you improve a struggling school's or school system's test scores and average educational performance is by removing its high-achieving students.

 

I could not agree more. I substitute teach in a district with a lot of range (from one of the best high schools in the state to a couple schools that I eventually refused to go to) and have spent a fair amount of time in classrooms where, say, 25 of the kids have absolutely no desire to be there, making it practically impossible to educate the five who actually might get something from it. It's made me seriously question whether trying to educate everybody is in the nation's best interest. We keep pretending that all students are being prepared for college, and in doing so do a disservice to both those who are actually hoping to go to college and the rest of the kids who are in class only because they'd have to go to court if they miss any more school. It seems to me that for a lot of students helping them learn a trade would be a much more effective use of resources than jamming Shakespeare down their throats.

 

Many kids would rather rebuild a car engine or build a bookcase than write a paper or read book and there is nothing wrong with that. NCLB and George W just never understood that.

 

My wife is a middle school teacher in southern New Jersey. Nearly nine years after leaving her newspaper career to do something she hoped would have more of a tangible positive impact on the community, she still makes about 20 grand a year less than she made as an editor. (She had a real good newspaper job.)
We have a new governor in New Jersey who has (A) declined to enact a planned tax increase on people making more than $400,000 a year and (B) is cutting state aid to school districts by 15 percent WHILE ALSO CONFISCATING MONEY PRUDENT DISTRICTS HAD SET ASIDE FOR A RAINY DAY, OR MAJOR PROJECTS.
The result is going to be disastrous to the quality of education in our township, one of the main reasons people live here. The district can't just cut anything it would like to cut -- cowardly unfunded state and federal mandates shackle it severely. Basically, a bunch of teachers are going to lose their jobs, programs for smart kids are going to be axed, and my wife is going to lose the extra money (a pittance) she makes for directing school plays, etc.
But this fat asshole governor will be able to brag that he balanced the budget.
BTW, yesterday he made an appearance at a town in our area, where the mayor is one of his cronies. This town has the worst school district in the area, even though it's fairly prosperous, because most of the upper middle class folks there send their kids to Catholic school, AS DOES THE GOVERNOR.

These know-nothing teabag assholes are going to reap what they sow. Only all the rest of us are going to reap it, as well. At least my youngest is out of high school in 2011.

 

I couldn't believe it when I saw the NJ governor was taking money back from school districts that had used it wisely. Talk about a disincentive. From here on out, every district is going to spend, spend, spend up to its limit because if it doesn't, the money disappears. Not that there will be a lot of money to spend, but still.

 

This Newsweek article confirmed my observations -- at least of America's teaching corps -- during my time as a higher education reporter. As I've said on here before, about 20 percent of the practitioners of any profession are inept. Teaching is no different.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590

 

At the plate, Kansas City.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5itXI7J7kJ7Eka6sEx9IofeKycRqgD9ECEGQ00

 

3,000 employees and 61 schools? Only 18,000 students?

God, yes, you have to mothball the schools.

We have about 24,000 students, 31 locations and about 2,700 employees. WTF were they doing?

 

Yes, 18,000 students for 61 schools is crazy.

In Texas, the Denton, Tyler, Goose Creek and Allen Independent School Districts have similar enrollments and have 32, 31, 25 and 20 campuses respectively.