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My MIL is a teacher, and she's taught at wealthy schools and poor schools. Wealthy schools have more money, but they actually often have less - if a school's a
by citizenkeen 4y ago
My MIL is a teacher, and she's taught at wealthy schools and poor schools.
Wealthy schools have more money, but they actually often have less - if a school's average socio-economic class drops below a certain point, there's a slew of federal funding available and she often had more resources in a poor school than a wealthy one. The poorest schools are often the middle-class - those too wealthy to qualify for the funding but not wealthy enough to be rich.
The real benefit to wealthy schools, in her mind (anecdata) was the number of single income households. Students and classrooms do a lot better when there are a bunch of volunteers.
Schools used to have Teaching Assistants. Dedicated, low-pay non-teachers who could help in classrooms. We don't have these (in my state) any more.
But the wealthy schools do. Because there are a lot of volunteer parents (mostly moms) who don't work and are happy to come in one day a week. When my MIL taught at wealthy schools, she often had 2 parents in her classroom every day of the week helping prep. In the poor schools she had Chromebooks for every kid (before that was the norm), but no help so she didn't bother breaking them out.
- somethoughts 4y agoAnec-datally this rings true to me. I think in wealthier neighborhoods there is also a lot more competitiveness for PTA and school board seats from parents who are very highly credentialed (i.e. MBA, former product managers, lawyers) that have electively taken time off/early retirement to have more quality time with their kids. There's some sort of institutional knowledge coming from the business world on how to run effective meetings, run a fundraiser, etc.
- rootusrootus 4y agoOn the flip side, I have yet to see a really well-functioning PTA. Usually because it's a bunch of hyper competitive MBAs, CEOs, and lawyers who adore parliamentarian ceremony and only secondarily have any interest in marshaling resources in support of students. I think it might actually work better if it were just properly educated average people running that show.
- somethoughts 4y agoAgree! It can become a but political. It should be noted though that while that is less than perfect... What I've observed in less well off neighborhoods is that in particular the school board becomes populated with professional administrators. Then the administrators get familiar with the process for procurement for supplies, facilities and contracted work and start getting cozy with the local providers of those services. And things start going down hill and there is little in the way of oversight since most parents/voters are too busy juggling multiple jobs, etc.
- rsync 4y ago"The poorest schools are often the middle-class - those too wealthy to qualify for the funding but not wealthy enough to be rich." That is a very interesting anecdote and conclusion - thank you.
- dixie_land 4y agoThis is also true in general, middle class gets squeezed. All of the lefts “tax the rich” and welfare state initiatives end up hurting the middle class.
- oneoff786 4y agoI grew up in a pretty wealthy area. The public school was good. The private school had this vibe of prestige but in practice performed a lot worse on things like AP tests A weird state. I don’t think parents knew how to navigate it or even interpret the state of things. The marketing and formal dress code made it seem like the better choice. Suckers…
- WalterBright 4y agoMakes me wonder how I survived public school - I never saw a volunteer in the classroom ever. They weren't poor schools, either, and this was back when moms didn't work.