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I have three children. It is literally impossible for me to survive on any salary companies are willing to pay. I work multiple jobs. Idk the solution. It cost
by anonreeeeplor 4y ago
I have three children. It is literally impossible for me to survive on any salary companies are willing to pay. I work multiple jobs.
Idk the solution. It costs me $3,000 a month just for school. That’s a second mortgage.
Either they increase pay 50%. Which they don’t want to do. Or I work three jobs. If they don’t like it, pay more.
I actually don’t even have a choice, it isn’t even an option. School must get paid for. It isn’t a lifestyle expense. It is a necessity.
- judge2020 4y ago> That’s a second mortgage. Sounds like student loans.
- HWR_14 4y agoInstead of paying $12,000/kid/year you could just send them to public school.
- unendingtorment 4y agoOr maybe get vouchers or tax refund for that dumpster fire.
- itake 4y agoI think that's defeats the purpose of public school. As a society, we decided we need to collectively contribute to every child's education, regardless if they are own. I have no kids, but I pay my school taxes so that other people's children can have an education.
- oatmeal_croc 4y agoPaying for other children's education gives you benefits like lesser crime and will keep the value of your property high.
- quickthrower2 4y agoAnd the continuation of modern civilisation to boot!
- SilasX 4y agoThe parent wasn’t disagreeing with the collective payment responsibility (and I don’t know where you got that), only with the public school model that gives no choice as to which schools the money is spent at.
- lazyasciiart 4y agoSuggesting a tax refund is pretty clearly proposing they should not have to fund public schools.
- pooper 4y agoI fully support a public education but in the US, the school system is massively overloaded. We blame schools for everything and schools are all too eager to accept responsibility for anything and everything. School athletics programs paying for huge multimillion dollar stadiums should not be possible. And on that topic, independent school districts should not exist. One state, one school district. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Stadium_(Allen,_Texas) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Stadium_(Allen,_Texas)
- SilasX 4y agoRefund or voucher to the parent suffering it. Still not seeing how you went from that to “don’t you understand that non-parents should fund public schools?” The premise is that those hurt by it, parents, recover money to otherwise educate their kids. Nowhere in that was a claim that the childless should get money back for being childless, so I don’t see how addressing that is responsive.
- lazyasciiart 4y agoBut I don’t care if their kids use it. They are not funding their child, they are funding the system of public education.
- SilasX 4y agoWhich vouchers are. Why is this so hard to understand?
- conductr 4y agoYou would not pay those taxes if they were optional. Most wouldn't anyways. Most people live in a paycheck to paycheck world and would love to get a free pass on that tax bill. "We" also have not really decided anything as a society but were born into the decisions of prior generations and it could be changed. See Roe v Wade, marijuana, etc.
- abigail95 4y agoThe purpose of a public school is the opportunity to educate children at little to no out of pocket cost. It has nothing to do with specifics of the tax system, or whether a voucher program exists. Also, if you are American, voluntarily donating money without oversight to a local school has as much return as breast cancer awareness.
- Bud 4y ago
- marcosdumay 4y agoHow is a voucher not collectively contributing to every child's education?
- asdff 4y agoIf you give your kids a stable home they will do fine in public school
- HWR_14 4y agoI don't get a refund for having no kids in public school. Why would anyone else?
- forgotmypw17 4y agoHaving been through public school in the U.S., I would not send my own child to one if I had any other choice.
- hamandcheese 4y agoThen you went to a bad public school.
- forgotmypw17 4y agoNo, I went to three bad public schools. And people I know went to many bad public schools.
- awillen 4y agoThe way you say this implies that there's some easy way to move your kids from a bad public school to a good public school. This is of course laughably wrong, since moving schools requires buying a home in a nicer/more expensive area.
- hamandcheese 4y agoIf you’re sending 3 kids to private school for $1000/month each, you could afford instead another $400k of mortgage or so on top of what your mortgage already is with todays interest rates. That’s almost as much as the median home in America. So assuming you already live in the median home, you could send your kids to private school, or you could buy a house that’s twice as expensive. Where I grew up, the median home is less than the national median, and the public schools are pretty good.
- oaktrout 4y agoI on the other hand went to public school and would send my children to one. Anecdotally, some of the most successful people I know went to public school, many of which had parents that could easily afford to send them to private school.
- saxonww 4y agoAs someone who went to public school and is doing just fine, I am wondering why that's not the solution.
- robocat 4y agoSelection bias? The person who who went to public school and didn’t do fine is not so likely to be posting on HN?
- simfree 4y agoYo, don't @ me. And yes, those of us with poor public school experiences are here on HN.
- edrxty 4y agoWent to public until 5th then private school through HS, all were dumpster fires in their own way. Just my .02, and while this was over a decade ago, I'm inclined to believe shitty and free is better than shitty and expensive. If your kids are even remotely motivated and smart, what they do outside school is 10,000x more important so might as well put the money towards that.
- JamesianP 4y agoWhere I grew up public schools were measurably worse than alternatives. Using objective metrics like average number of gang wars in a given year. Since there's something like 100k public schools in the US, with very different performance and governments in charge, I don't think people here are really in a position to judge someone's parenting choices over the internets. Also by the way, public universities run about 12k/year, so they may well have their children in public school.
- edrxty 4y agoYeah you raise a good point, I was in a city with generally serviceable schools. Really, I just tend to get frustrated at the belief system that all public schools are awful and any good parent should send their kids to private school. Even when the public option is ok we can't have our kids hanging out with the prole kids.
- andrewmcwatters 4y ago@anonreeeeplor spend less on candles
- ummonk 4y agoDo you have a spouse? You might be worried about public school quality, but at some point it would be cheaper to just have the spouse stay at home and home school.
- tkk23 4y agoNot to forget that OP could do the home schooling and the spouse keeps working.
- kyleyeats 4y agoHomeschooling is like a second job, though. One where you can't bullshit and lie your way through it.
- mellavora 4y agoand where you don't get paid and which doesn't give you any credit on your CV when you go to look for your next job and where you don't get any social security benefits.
- kyleyeats 4y agoI don't think the OE crowd is loading up their CVs with these concurrent jobs. And kids are the original social security.
- lupire 4y agoIf you can snag a WFH job, you can homeschool after grade 5 pretty easily. School is half daycare and a lot of students doing work, and half foller topics you don't need to study.
- kyleyeats 4y agoThis is the way to do it IMO. I've worked with people with kids and OE people. The people with kids aren't double-dipping dragasses.
- gsk22 4y ago> School must get paid for. You pay for it with your taxes. It's a lifestyle choice if you want to send your kids to a private institution when public school is already covered. I hope that doesn't come across as rude, because that's not my intention. But private school is not some necessity of life that you're forced to pay for -- definitely not "literally impossible" to survive without.
- yellow_lead 4y agoTechnically yes, but depending on your location your public school system may be chronically under-funded, to the point where sending your kid to a public school would put them at a big disadvantage in high school or college (and so then for the rest of their life). Yes, you could move, but as it turns out properties are more expensive in good school districts.
- deltree7 4y agoYou could live in a shitty apartment in a good school district, if you are really determined to sacrifice and give a good education to your kids. 100% of the immigrants do that
- nyanpasu64 4y agoAnd raise traumatized children like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010.
- lupire 4y agoThat person would be traumatized at private school too.
- Bud 4y agoThose districts are very likely to have housing markets that include precious few "shitty apartments" and zoning that makes it impossible to build more of them. That's a fundamental fact of modern America.
- mellavora 4y agoYou're getting a lot of heat for investing in your children. This makes me sad, though I suspect the people are good intentioned, trying to help you "solve" your problem. I can think of many scenarios where 1K/month/child is the best option. I don't know the quality of schools available in your area, but I do know it can vary wildly, and good school can make a huge difference. And you have my deep respect for the sacrifice you are making for your children. We need more people like you.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- thwayunion 4y agoIn particular, how many of the "public school is good enough" folks are paying four figures extra on their mortgage payment to be in an area where that's true. In any major metro, an extra 2-3 bedrooms in a district with great schools is way more expensive than living in a place with the worst schools and paying tuition.
- int_19h 4y agoI think the reason for the heat is framing it as "it's impossible to survive".
- c7b 4y agoSorry to hear, that sounds like a real struggle. Serious question: have you considered giving up one of those jobs and home-schooling your kids with the time gained? There were quite a few articles about how unreasonably effective real tutoring (as opposed to exam tutoring) is, it's made me wonder how practical it is for people who aren't independently wealthy.