robertv3

ISD = independent school district, I hope. I had to look up the acronym.

Aside from hearing and reading and believing that public schools are underfunded, I have one (or probably two) example(s) of a school which was underfunded, and another example of a school board which valued sports over other school-related things. I'll get to those in a minute.

But first I want to agree with a lot of what you are saying (or implying). I deplore the useless expensive upkeep of unneeded campuses, and the decision to spend money on a stadium instead of other school-related things, and the computerized display sign used mainly to announce birthdays. Encountering all that, what _I_ think is: what is guiding that school board's budget decisions?

In this example you give, I would say that that school which you describe _is_ getting enough money, but is not spending it wisely.

Now to my own examples:

The school board which valued sports more than other parts of schooling:

I come from a school that only had a few dozen students, and when enrollment declined below a certain point, the school had to merge with another town's school -- there was some rule or law that said a high school had to have above a certain number of students. That's just to give a little environmental flavor; your county had 15,000 people, mine had 8,000 and declining; and our town had fewer than 300 people, and declining. So, what did our school support, or to put it another way, what did our _school_board_ support? In a word, football. Or in three words, football and basketball. One of the town's most highly educated people ran for school board multiple times but couldn't get elected. That person would have v**ed on the school board to support a better academic program. But the community didn't value academics as much as it valued football. We also had an excellent gymnasium, and a great girls' basketball team.

(Perhaps incidentally to wh**ever the school board was doing, the superintendent sidestepped the foreign language teacher's offer to teach me 3rd-year foreign language, by diverting the discussion to ask me what I had against chemistry (I hadn't said anything about chemistry).)

I offer that as an example of a school board which did not sufficiently support a good academic education but instead used its funds to support sports. It happens to be the only school I knew until I went away to college. And it seems to match up pretty well to the situation in the school you describe: perhaps there, too, the school board did not sufficiently support a good academic education but instead used its funds to support less worthy things.

The underfunded public schools that I was close to: one middle school and, probably, one high school:

When my younger child was in middle school (in a big city), she told me about funding problems and I could see her teachers out on the street letting people know they were being underfunded. The school library was being cut (that's the main thing I remember my child talking about -- that plus teachers being underpaid). (She was pretty mad about the library budget being cut.) At least one of my kid's teachers had to quit teaching in the community (part of a city of a million people) because her salary wasn't enough to live on near the school.

My kids' grade school and high school looked good to me. The high school was having at least one problem though: their school counselor budget was too low; these were the kind of school counselors who guide students in the process of getting ready for college. There weren't enough such counselors for the number of students to be served. So the students had to prepare for college without the benefit of such counseling.

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Now, what sort of discussion does one see in the news about schools? It's usually about supporting private schools or charter schools, and deriding public schools. _I_ don't think it represents a push toward better academic education; I think it represents profiteering (privatization of what traditionally was a public function) and a corresponding derision against public funding. The result is that rich people will have more options for schooling while poor people have deteriorating schools and few options if any. It will make more profits for private entities, while there will be less control for the large mass of people who can _v**e_ (regarding wh**ever the public funding -- or the remaining diminished public funding -- would be used for) but aren't _wealthy_ enough to afford private schooling for their kids.

That's the difference between "public" and "private": "public" corresponds to _v****g_; "private" corresponds to _wealth_.

And the wealthy people and profiteers have the bigger advertising budgets and the bigger lobbying budgets, as compared with the unwealthy people who can just v**e in public e******ns. _I_ think those advertising and lobbying budgets t***slate into propaganda. And the wealthy get wealthier and more powerful compared with the others.

bggamers Loc: georgia

Teachers now and back in the day don't want to be bothered with someone they feel is not worth the time. I'm (71) I didn't know how to read till 6th grade had a teacher late in fifth grade who kept me after school and asked me to read the alphabet cards above the blackboard I couldn't by the end of the fifth I had learned the alphabet got into 6th when my teacher took me to the principal told her there was something wrong with my eyes have my mother get them checked. Half my problem was they found I was near sighted to the point of being considered legally blind without my glasses by the seventh they checked my ears and found large balls of wax in front of my ear drums so I couldn't hear everyone just assumed I was stupid and just kept passing me forward.After the 6th grade a friend introduced me to the local library I became an avid reader and discovered a whole world of adventures inside those books its like I'm in there following the hero around like their shadows. I still read went back to school several times and back to school again at forty and got my nursing license. what is happening today has been going on for decades. I have heard people say that the board of education needs to be dismantled I feel their right its a money-grabbing diaster that produces nothing for student that will help them in their future. There was a school in some state I worked in and high school had trade classes like welding ,electrical basics etc I thought that was a terrific idea . Even if kids do go to college that training will help them down the line trades often make more money and are always in demand.

Rose42

People have changed. They used to be drawn to teaching for the love of it not for the pay. People want more things.

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

Agreed. With a few exceptions (Einstein, Hawking, etc whose genius defies understanding), the primary basis of mathematics is rearranging the complex into simpler configurations that we know how to manipulate.

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

I agree with your statements. Where I am puzzled is WHY the claim that schools are underfunded. The evidence is that schools have not only adequate funding, but far FAR more than needed. It seems to me that the problem, like in most bureaucracies, is the funds being spend unwisely on unneeded items at the expense of needed ones.

guzzimaestro

Exactly, it's the unions

RandyBrian Loc: Texas

I agree. My point is that, IMO the schools (most of them) have more than enough funding. The problem appears to be where that money is spent. And Robert is right, a LOT of the poor decisions is based on what the v**ers of the school boards demand, and not what is best for the students and their education. A very HARD look at our overall education system is needed, and I do NOT mean the at the federal level. That is nothing but politics. Heaven help us if Biden and the DNC get more control over our schools than they already have.

robertv3

Okay, yeah, but what things? Like to be able to make a decent living?

Rose42

No…to get more ‘stuff’. Most live beyond their means.