6 ms·

>A million-plus for a home with $300,000 down? Then when we have kids, $30,000 a year for private school? This quote totally confounded me. Why is it a given t

>A million-plus for a home with $300,000 down? Then when we have kids, $30,000 a year for private school? This quote totally confounded me. Why is it a given that their kids have to go to private school? If you're optimizing your budget for home-ownership, why not just send your kids to the schools your taxes are paying for?

ainiriand 7y ago
Because the public system sucks and the more money you have for that the more opportunities they will have.
- mcv 7y ago
  That the school system sucks is not an unavoidable fact of life, it's a problem that needs to be fixed. I admit, another problem on the big pile of problems that need to be fixed, apparently.
  - sundvor 7y ago
    It doesn't suck in countries such as Australia and Norway.
    - jfnixon 7y ago
      Whatever could the difference be??
      - 420codebro 7y ago
        This mystery will be with us for a long time. Real stumper.
      - flukus 7y ago
        State level funding is a big one, poor areas get the same funding for local schools as wealthy areas. I don't understand why "progressives" in the US don't support a more egalitarian funding model, it seems like a very achievable goal and compensates for quite a few privileges.
    - meerita 7y ago
      They have both systems. And public system always sucks, because there isn't an unlimited amount of good teachers for all the public offer and, not the same amount of resources. Private schools have better everything because there's competition.
      - mcv 7y ago
        Not true. There are plenty of public systems that work very well, and better than private systems. Just look at health care systems. Schools could be the same, but you have to invest in them. Plenty of countries have excellent public schools.
        meerita 7y ago
        Well, The PISA results are agaisnt your bias.
  - adrianN 7y ago
    It's a problem that parents can't fix on their own by other means than sending their children to private schools.
    - ForHackernews 7y ago
      All the rich people sending their kids to private school does not fix the problem of poor public schools. If anything, it exacerbates the problem.
mschuster91 7y ago
> why not just send your kids to the schools your taxes are paying for? Because thanks to massive underfunding US public education is ... not exactly what one can expect from a first world country. In some areas children actually only have four days of school because of underfunding (http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-school-switches-to-four-day-week-and-teachers-and-students-love-it-20190529 http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-school-switches-to-four-da...).
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Is this actually the case in SF though?
  - jwilliams 7y ago
    Yes, I've heard of days getting cut - and many extra-circular programs too. Even in extreme-affluent parts of Silicon Valley. Often due to the ubiquity of private schools, property taxes aren't funneled effectively to public schools. So funding can be very patchy. Moving specifically back to SF, the system is also a lottery[1]. 1: https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-school-lottery-works-and-how-it-doesnt-2 https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-sch...
- majewsky 7y ago
  > US public education is ... not exactly what one can expect from a first world country. As a European, I slowly wonder if there's any public service in the US that meets the "first-world country" standard. Not education. Certainly not healthcare. Infrastructure is also crumbling from what I hear.
  - gingabriska 7y ago
    US is the best if you are rich, you can get almost everything here not same in Europe.
    - mcv 7y ago
Balgair 7y ago
So, this is super specific to California public schools and SFUSD. Norms that apply in Germany or Maryland do not necessarily apply in SF. You can start diving in the very complex issues with SFUSD funding here [0]. Two major points are Prop-13 and the LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula): Property taxes only re-assess upon the sale of a house (kinda, it's complicated [1]). As such, only ~25% of the budget comes from property taxes [2]. The LCFF is such that Sacremento controls the funding for schools[2]. Essentially, the money comes out of the state and does not stay in the local area. How that money is divied out is, again, really complex. So, your taxes don't pay for your local school, they pay for the state as a whole (again, kinda, its complicated). [0] http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/budget/faq-budget.html http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/budget/faq-budget.html [1] https://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Prop13.pdf https://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Prop13.pdf [2] https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays

ainiriand 7y ago

Because the public system sucks and the more money you have for that the more opportunities they will have.

mcv 7y ago
That the school system sucks is not an unavoidable fact of life, it's a problem that needs to be fixed. I admit, another problem on the big pile of problems that need to be fixed, apparently.
- sundvor 7y ago
  It doesn't suck in countries such as Australia and Norway.
  - jfnixon 7y ago
    Whatever could the difference be??
    - 420codebro 7y ago
      This mystery will be with us for a long time. Real stumper.
    - flukus 7y ago
      State level funding is a big one, poor areas get the same funding for local schools as wealthy areas. I don't understand why "progressives" in the US don't support a more egalitarian funding model, it seems like a very achievable goal and compensates for quite a few privileges.
  - meerita 7y ago
    They have both systems. And public system always sucks, because there isn't an unlimited amount of good teachers for all the public offer and, not the same amount of resources. Private schools have better everything because there's competition.
    - mcv 7y ago
      Not true. There are plenty of public systems that work very well, and better than private systems. Just look at health care systems. Schools could be the same, but you have to invest in them. Plenty of countries have excellent public schools.
      - meerita 7y ago
        Well, The PISA results are agaisnt your bias.
- adrianN 7y ago
  It's a problem that parents can't fix on their own by other means than sending their children to private schools.
  - ForHackernews 7y ago
    All the rich people sending their kids to private school does not fix the problem of poor public schools. If anything, it exacerbates the problem.

mschuster91 7y ago

> why not just send your kids to the schools your taxes are paying for? Because thanks to massive underfunding US public education is ... not exactly what one can expect from a first world country. In some areas children actually only have four days of school because of underfunding (http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-school-switches-to-four-day-week-and-teachers-and-students-love-it-20190529 http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-school-switches-to-four-da...).

mehrdadn 7y ago
Is this actually the case in SF though?
- jwilliams 7y ago
  Yes, I've heard of days getting cut - and many extra-circular programs too. Even in extreme-affluent parts of Silicon Valley. Often due to the ubiquity of private schools, property taxes aren't funneled effectively to public schools. So funding can be very patchy. Moving specifically back to SF, the system is also a lottery[1]. 1: https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-school-lottery-works-and-how-it-doesnt-2 https://www.kqed.org/news/11641238/how-the-san-francisco-sch...
majewsky 7y ago
> US public education is ... not exactly what one can expect from a first world country. As a European, I slowly wonder if there's any public service in the US that meets the "first-world country" standard. Not education. Certainly not healthcare. Infrastructure is also crumbling from what I hear.
- gingabriska 7y ago
  US is the best if you are rich, you can get almost everything here not same in Europe.
  - mcv 7y ago

Balgair 7y ago

So, this is super specific to California public schools and SFUSD. Norms that apply in Germany or Maryland do not necessarily apply in SF. You can start diving in the very complex issues with SFUSD funding here [0]. Two major points are Prop-13 and the LCFF (Local Control Funding Formula): Property taxes only re-assess upon the sale of a house (kinda, it's complicated [1]). As such, only ~25% of the budget comes from property taxes [2]. The LCFF is such that Sacremento controls the funding for schools[2]. Essentially, the money comes out of the state and does not stay in the local area. How that money is divied out is, again, really complex. So, your taxes don't pay for your local school, they pay for the state as a whole (again, kinda, its complicated). [0] http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/budget/faq-budget.html http://www.sfusd.edu/en/about-sfusd/budget/faq-budget.html [1] https://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Prop13.pdf https://www.californiataxdata.com/pdf/Prop13.pdf [2] https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays https://ed100.org/lessons/whopays