California public school enrollment sees big drops
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#2As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really.
Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#3As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
It depends heavily on your location. Public schools are generally assigned based on the student's primary address, so houses in good school districts tend to attract a premium. This leaves schools in poor areas chronically underfunded and understaffed
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#4As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
super location dependent. There are many reasons, from the absurd to the cruel (CA for example doesn't allow property taxes/council rates to track market value, largely because of campaigning in the 70s after the Supreme Court said CA had to fund schools in poor neighborhoods to the same extent as those in rich neighborhoods).
I'm from NZ, so my US partner's Oakland, CA high school experience was horrifying:
* They had metal detectors on entrances
* They had armed police (or something similar: a precursor to the modern US "school resource officers")
* They had drug dogs, one of which OD'd
* The toilet stalls did not have doors
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#5As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
I grew up in Virginia, an hour south of DC. Public schools there were large campuses, generally built within the past 30 years, with what seemed to be a good balance of teachers who actually lived near the schools they taught at. There wasn’t much of a concept in my family or anybody I knew growing up of “choosing a house near a good school” and the county would redraw the school districts from time to time to help with the bus routes or spreading load or something and it never seemed like a huge deal.
I now live in Southern California and am always surprised to see schools as 1-story buildings from the 1960s with so many trailers outside. I have no idea how far the teachers have to drive to get to them as the houses around nice schools cost so much.
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#6As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
super location dependent. There are many reasons, from the absurd to the cruel (CA for example doesn't allow property taxes/council rates to track market value, largely because of campaigning in the 70s after the Supreme Court said CA had to fund schools in poor neighborhoods to the same extent as those in rich neighborhoods). I'm from NZ, so my US partner's Oakland, CA high school experience was horrifying: * They h…
I’ve never heard of toilet stalls without doors in schools. The really flimsy walls high above the floors, sure, but no doors? That sounds like a massive open door for bullying
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#7As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
Like others have mentioned, public schooling in the U.S. is heavily location-dependent. Many affluent suburbs with wealthy, involved parents have great public schools. You don't hear about them because of reporting bias: if the schools are good, the last thing you want is lots of other people coming to your town to take advantage of them, but if they're bad it makes for a good outrage piece.
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
super location dependent. There are many reasons, from the absurd to the cruel (CA for example doesn't allow property taxes/council rates to track market value, largely because of campaigning in the 70s after the Supreme Court said CA had to fund schools in poor neighborhoods to the same extent as those in rich neighborhoods). I'm from NZ, so my US partner's Oakland, CA high school experience was horrifying: * They h…
I’ve never heard of toilet stalls without doors in schools. The really flimsy walls high above the floors, sure, but no doors? That sounds like a massive open door for bullying
My otherwise nice schools in the 90s were like that. No door on the boys’ bathroom, and no doors on the stalls.
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#9As a none-american, can I ask: Are public schools in the USA bad? Like, I have such a negative view of them as underfunded, understaffed, filled with overworked & burned out staff. just somewhere that education goes to die, really. Is that view accurate? Or do I just have that view due to media bias(The bias being that there's no news story: 'Random School is well run, more at 11')?
American schools are fine. They are not underfunded: we spend the OECD average on K-12 as a percentage of GDP, and since we are so rich it ends up on the high end in absolute terms. Our class sizes are right around the OECD average, smaller than Germany or France: http://oecdedutoday.com/how-does-class-size-vary-around-the-....
The problem is that American kids are bad—poorly behaved and uninterested in education.
Re: California public school enrollment sees big drops
#10If you don't allow students to actually come to school for two years then some of them might leave permanently. What a surprise.