Why should education be a state controlled issue?

[Aquapod770]

(08-05-2016, 02:29 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I think Bmore will back me up on this, funding only gets you so far.  What really determines the level of education a child gets is the level of parental involvement.  A child that fears no consequences for not paying attention and learning in class will generally prefer not to.  A child who can ditch school without consequences, or with parental permission, tacit or otherwise, will generally indulge in doing so.  The best teacher in the world with the best materials in the world will not be able to reach a group of children who have no incentive to pay attention or dis-insensitive not to.  This is also why teachers deal with such high levels of disciplinary problems in many areas.  Often times the first person in a child's life to impose a set of rules, enforce them and hold the child accountable is a teacher.  If there's no accountability in the home the teacher is at the wrong end of a long, painful struggle and every second spent in that struggle is a second that takes away from their ability to teach.  Not only is it time intensive, it's mentally draining, and being mentally exhausted isn't a recipe for performing at peak levels.

My sister just got her degree from Towson University and began teaching at Howard County Public Schools this past year. The state(?) is currently offering a student loan payoff program for new teachers if they go to work in Baltimore City Schools. One of her friends chose to do that and hates it. A couple of students got into a fight one and she had to physically separate them. The kids mom came in the next day screaming at her about laying hands on her kid and threatened to get a lawyer. Didn't even care that her son was assaulting another student. Parenting plays a huge part. Throwing money at a problem very rarely works, yet is often the go to solution. 

(08-05-2016, 02:33 PM)GMDino Wrote: Funding is a problem when it is determined by property values.

It gets to be very unequal.

But I agree that how they use it is just as important.  Over the past decade many of our districts have allowed buildings to deteriorate, then they close them and consolidate, then they say the schools are overcrowded and take out loans / bonds to build new ones.

Great scheme while it lasted.

And as SSF said above what students get out of the actual education is reliant a lot on the parents. 

http://www.newsweek.com/do-baltimore-schools-need-more-money-329085

Pretty good article that compares funding in baltimore city schools to fairfax county. The federal government tends to be on the side of just throwing more money at a problem. This is why I wouldn't be sad if the Department of Education stopped being a thing. As shown in the article when local funding is low the state tends to pick up most of the tab anyway.