Reopening Schools

[GMDino]

(07-15-2020, 12:19 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The single biggest reform that could help alleviate poverty would be to have all public schools equally funded by the state instead of having the richest kids have superior skills. This would actually require amending some state constitutions but it would be worth it.  And I don't know how wealthy people could object to equal opportunity for all.

I attended Catholic school growing up.  Each parish maintained its own grade school (or closed it) with assistance from the diocese. The way the tuition was handled on the high school level was the parents paid part and the parish you belonged to paid part of it.  If your parish snet ten students to the high school they paid more than a parish that sent one...but all the parents paid the same.  If tuition was $200 and the parish picked up $100 one is paying $1000 the other $100 but the parents pay $100 each.  

That has all changed.

Now all the parishes send X amount to the diocese and it gets split up by schools.  The grade schools get a bit, the high schools get a bit.  Then it is given to students based on need and enrollment.  That has resulted in wildly differing payments for the parents and has forced many to drop out of the system which further skewed the help from the diocese. So while one school thrived the other died on the vine.

The same is happening with the public schools.  They are cutting and carving up every program and position they can and are afraid to even suggest raising taxes on the district level.  On the state level there is never talk of helping the poorer districts.  The closest we came was when one local rep suggested merging a bunch of the districts into one mega district.  There were two problems with that:  1) He was trying to force it on the ballot and even if he made it it required all the individual school boards to vote in favor also.  And 2) He was a crook of the highest degree.  If he was for it that meant he found a way to make money for himself on it.  The idea was rejected from the students up and even a study he used tax money to fund showed it was a bad idea they way he proposed it and wasn't legal the way he wanted to do it.

My point is that change needs to happen to equalize things for our students.  From the state to the local school boards.  Spreading the wealth equally, so to speak, would be a good first step.