Got thoughts on public education?

@deathfairy Yep! Completely agree with you on all counts. Doctors basically work for insurance companies in the US.

@CountScrofula The very concept of public education and its funding may come across to accounting majors as being about as ass backward as it gets. Apparently a student's funding follows the student to the public school. And administrators figure out the more kids in the classroom, the more money the school brings in. THAT'S the mentality, and it's the reason why classrooms are so crowded. Teacher pay in some areas is low due to decisions by the school boards. (In Florida, teacher pay varies by the county.) The poorest counties (which are not surprisingly high population centers) usually vote on the low side for teacher pay, and then they act surprised when teachers leave the profession.

@CountScrofula Actually, insurance companies (and Medicare) have enabled doctors to price gouge the public for the past sixty years.
Just imagine what would happen if ALL insurance companies and ALL government subsidies ceased to exist. Imagine if doctors had to price their services according to what people could afford. You'd see some REAL changes in the costs, and quickly.

@MasterLee In some schools that is true. I'm proud to say that in the two Florida counties I sub at, so far there ARE some left wing teachers, (one Math teacher had a huge Obama poster in her classroom; one had a BLM sticker on the inside of his desk) but so far, they are sticking to the academic subjects, for the simple reason that they just don't have enough time for anything else. The Florida education curriculum for our kids is jam packed with the academic items they'll need to apply for college. Governor Jeb Bush (around the turn of the century) signed several education bills into law that took Florida from the bottom 48 percent in the country to the top ten. More is expected, not only of our students but our teachers as well.

@MaBalzEsHari https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

It definitely exists. I have no idea what rock you live under.

@therighttothink50 Good points.

@MorbidCynic There is one county I work for in Florida (I'm not mentioning any actual locations because some message board trolls would show up at my place of work. They've done it in the past.) that has a very small percentage of it's high school student body that is homeless. And those schools have school breakfast and lunches year round, even during summer school. For some kids, the public school is the only food they will get. I know that' s not supposed to be the function of public schools, but one has to applaud that effort.

@sunriselover I only speak for Florida public schools. As much as America's Democrats would like to think public education is standardized learning from coast to coast, that just isn't correct at all. Here in two Florida counties, each individual school might as well be a separate country, in terms of how its run. They don't even use the same textbooks. Being a sub means being able to see the big picture. And I would recommend ANY future teacher to have to spend at least a year as a substitute, in as many different schools as possible, to get the real picture of what's going on.

@sunriselover The business model of most independent schools in the UK is based on selecting the easiest pupils to teach, a luxury not afforded to the state sector. I think independent schools should be given the same responsibilities as comprehensive schools, then see how they compare.

@SunshineGirl The first task I had to do at top public school was to tell a fourteen year old boy he would never see his parents together again.

@Adogslife Far right book banning type? Excuse me, but CALIFAGULA is the place there books have actually been banned, including "To Kill A Mockingbird" "Of Mice And Men," and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." No school district in Florida has banned any books and neither has the Florida legislature. Of course, at the county level, some parents have removed gay porn books from elementary school libraries. If you have a problem with that, you shouldn't be allowed never public schools.

@Reason10 Of course, gay porn. Like “Lord of the Flies” and “A Brave New World”

Here’s a list of literally hundreds of books that Floridians apparently call gay porn then:

https://docs.house.gov/meetings/GO/GO02/20220407/114616/HHRG-117-GO02-20220407-SD018.pdf

At this point, you should hit “DELETE” on your entire thread. Your facts are shit, much like DeSantis’ political hopes outside of Florida. It’s almost like this is one of those “Only in Florida” news stories where someone does something with jaw dropping stupidity.

@teachmetiger210503 In the real world, the kids do not want to be at school. They would rather be home playing video games all day long. Education is not something you bestow on a minor based on that minor's OPINION of it. Same thing with getting a kid to eat spinach over donuts all day long. NOTHING in the system is going to make a regular child hunger or thirst for book learning. But that doesn't diminish the importance of an educated populace. Just look at the idiot voters in blue states if you want to see where the system has failed. Teachers have a tough job because they're up against lazy parents (a lot of which use public schools as a taxpayer financed free daycare center) and up against kids who do not want to be there. EVERY teacher understands this. Every sub does too. It's that part of the job.

@pillowprincess If you are looking at equality as an ENTITLEMENT, and that ALL students deserve to be treated the same, then they have the right to a free education. (And the poorer sections of the counties treat schools that way because they aren't directly paying taxes into the system. For them, schools are free daycare centers.) As far as discussing public schools, I was actually offering more concrete analysis and a lot of stories from my experience in the business. Yes, I can't just ignore the concept of funding education because EVERYTHING has to be paid for. But it is a fool's errand to want EQUALITY. Some countries (like China) come close to equality, with the largest sector of their population being equally illiterate and starving to death. That's usually a result in communist and socialist societies. In America, you still get what you pay for.

@Reason10 [image]

@SevIsPamprinYouAlways Gee! You must have thought long and hard to come up with that bullshit post. Then again, most liberals act like other long and hard objects all the time.

@Starcrossed @Starcrossed If the school is working for your kid, congrats.
As far as funding public education, you have two obstacles involved. At the county level, (especially in either Florida retirement areas or very poor areas) you have residents who complain about high property taxes.
If you are thinking of more public school education at the federal level, remember that our government is FORTY TRILLION DOLLARS IN THE HOLE, and 75 percent of that budget is entitlements. Education from Washington is seven percent of all education funding.

@Musicman The little idiot must have been watching THE VIEW. There are NO schools in Southwest Florida pushing those lies. Without giving away a location that would enable the thugs here to try to dox me, let's just say I've been working for two Southwest Florida counties for over 20 years. We outperform pretty much ALL blue states from down here. Then again, we're not a bunch of idiots when it comes to doing the job.

@Reason10 She said that's what her teacher taught them that day. 🤷‍♂️

@Musicman I could see that happening in a south EAST Florida school. Broward County schools are a joke in this state.
But there again, kids will say anything. If this kid didn't bring home any hard copy documentation, I wouldn't automatically be blaming the public school system. It's not like a parent found a gay porn book in an elementary school library. Let's see some proof, (if possible without revealing the identity of the school.)

@Roundandroundwego Only in blue states. For them, education is about indoctrination for future Fascists. The left is definitely at war with education. That's why blue state public schools produce such idiots.

@CrazyMusicLover Interesting take on that. Teachers EVERYWHERE are valued. It is considered a very honorable profession to be a teacher. You're around strangers meeting them for the first time and you announce your occupation is school teacher, you get instant respect. The problem is the lazy parents who do not raise their brats properly and impose them on a school system with zero discipline whatsoever. (Yes, I have gotten a LOT of grief from fellow conservatives for not instantly wanting to blame the teachers for everything, but I work in the system and I see the real world up close and personal.) In some ways, public schools are a reflection of life in general. If they are in a town with industrious parents who work hard and raise good kids, the schools will graduate well educated college bound seniors. Already, we are seeing the results of the opposite.

@Reason10 Not here. There's a saying "those who are smart, do what they studied, those who are not, teach." They are also underpaid tragically, often have side jobs and neglect their duties as teachers.

@faithfulhusband They passed a law in Florida giving parents the right to keep porn out of school libraries, gay or normal. It's called the Parental Choice Act. Of course, the Nazis at CNN called it the Don't Say Gay law, which is a lie.
You may have seen that news story about a parent at a school board conference who was reading some REALLY steamy and obscene material to the group. That person was called down for reading that, saying that material was inappropriate for the meeting. The parent then said she was reading from a book found in an elementary school library. ALL porn should be kept from school libraries at all lives, homosexual or normal.

@Kitsunex Yes, there are folks out there who claim to know it all. I've been subbing in Florida off and on since 1999. There's NO WAY I would want anyone to think I have all the answers, as far as public education goes. I wouldn't want the responsibility. Right now, I work for two counties. I mention that because in education most of the decisions are made (along with most of the funding) at the county level.
I could tell you some things that would cause your jaws to hit the floor. I've got an ass load of stories.

@Kitsunex A lot of misconceptions as to the strengths and weaknesses of public education. IN the early days of my job as a sub, I would sit in the teacher's lounge during lunch, take a couple of SHUT THE FCK UP pills and listen to the teachers. Their ideas (since teachers don't know how to take time off from the job) were as valuable as the initial sub training I had to go through.