Incredibly low-priced private schools
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Incredibly low-priced private schools
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Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#2Even most private schools in America charge less per pupil than the government pays to educate a student in a public school. Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#3I've lamented the fact that we are such small thinkers today. Our neighborhood public school is among the worst in the state. Local private schools cost about 1500/mo for gradeschool. I was looked at as a wild man for suggesting we should start our own school.
20 kids' worth of parents can afford to employ a teacher at a very attractive rate for both parties I suspect.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#4This is very cool, but I can't help remembering that the Wahhabi schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan (incorrectly called "madrassas", which is just a generic Arabic word for "school") would also fall into this category of small, private, low-cost schools. I wonder what can be done to ensure that schools like this that are run by potentially less scrupulous proprietors provide a quality education. I know that's not well defined, but I do not think we don't want to go down the Wahhabi road of teaching only a corrupted religious/political doctrine to advance political ends at the expense of promoting reading, math, and science -- or any number of other educational scams that one could devise.
It seems that one of the advantages that a public program could have in volatile areas is some manner of centralized curriculum oversight. How are private schools in the US regulated to prevent similar situations (if they are at all)?
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#5Even most private schools in America charge less per pupil than the government pays to educate a student in a public school. Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
Sure, but there's also the issue that they have to educate the worst behaved pupils, who presumably cost an order of magnitude more to deal with because of all the disturbance they cause in class.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#6Even most private schools in America charge less per pupil than the government pays to educate a student in a public school. Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
Sure, but there's also the issue that they have to educate the worst behaved pupils, who presumably cost an order of magnitude more to deal with because of all the disturbance they cause in class.
Governments also have a care of duty to disabled pupils as well, and I bet the private school equivalents are vastly more expensive.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#7Even most private schools in America charge less per pupil than the government pays to educate a student in a public school. Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
>Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
I'm starting to develop a theory that governments are efficient, even very much so, except to another metric. The US Gov's Education Department metric seems to be "pleasing the teacher's unions", not financial efficiency. And at that, they are very good.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#8This is very cool, but I can't help remembering that the Wahhabi schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan (incorrectly called "madrassas", which is just a generic Arabic word for "school") would also fall into this category of small, private, low-cost schools. I wonder what can be done to ensure that schools like this that are run by potentially less scrupulous proprietors provide a quality education. I know that's not we…
> How are private schools in the US regulated to prevent similar situations (if they are at all)?
In practice, market forces do a decent (though not perfect) job: most private schools want to produce students who have a chance of getting into a good college, and one of the more effective ways to convince colleges you aren't insane is to: 1) have your students do well on standardized tests like the SAT; and/or 2) be accredited by an organization like the National Association of Independent Schools.
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#9Even most private schools in America charge less per pupil than the government pays to educate a student in a public school. Governments are rarely efficient because they do not have to be.
According to http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_spe_per_pri_sch_stu-sp... the US spends about $6K per child for primary education.
I don't know about the US but private schools here in the UK are rather more than that (we pay a total of about $15K a year).
Re: Incredibly low-priced private schools
#10This is very cool, but I can't help remembering that the Wahhabi schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan (incorrectly called "madrassas", which is just a generic Arabic word for "school") would also fall into this category of small, private, low-cost schools. I wonder what can be done to ensure that schools like this that are run by potentially less scrupulous proprietors provide a quality education. I know that's not we…
1. You're assuming your conclusion.
2. Curriculum oversight is just another way of saying state sponsored indoctrination.
3. If parents believe that the schools are better than the alternatives, what right does anybody else have to butt in? In the American case they already pay for them through (local property) taxes anyway so they probably have good reason to pay a second time for the private version.
4. Would you support the abolition of the Amish's special privileges under which children are withdrawn from formal education at ~14, in contrast to the normal school leaving age? Why are they even allowed to have their own schools? After all they're weird religious fanatics with a self-perpetuating sub-culture, shouldn't we break that up and force them to assimilate by making their children go to schools with normal children? [Not actually a USAn]
As to private school oversight, I imagine it varies by state like the position on homeschooling. But the big discipliner is that parents can take their children out. they have real right of exit, to a far greater extent than with public schools