4 ms·

> 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 i

by 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 ago
Technically 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 ago
  You 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 ago
    And raise traumatized children like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010.
    - lupire 4y ago
      That person would be traumatized at private school too.
  - Bud 4y ago
    Those 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.
- gsk22 4y ago
  I'm a product of one of the shittiest public schools in my state. While I attended, they were forced by the state to convert to an "international baccalaureate" school because the alternative was closing. I say that because yet, among my peers from that school, I count engineers, astrophysicists, doctors, IT workers, psychologists, pilots, and more. So I would vigorously argue against the idea that students who attend underfunded public schools are at a disadvantage for life. The biggest impact I noticed is home life and the involvement of parents. If you are a parent who cares and pushes your child, that is worth way more than the quality of the school as assigned by some ranking system. Additionally, my exposure to a rough-and-tumble school with people of varying backgrounds (i.e., not a single socioeconomic stratum) gave me empathy and social skills that are extremely useful in everyday life. I'm not saying your choices are wrong, but I strongly disagree with the premise that a less-than-ideal public school leads to lifelong negative consequences.
  - yellow_lead 4y ago
    > The biggest impact I noticed is home life and the involvement of parents. If you are a parent who cares and pushes your child, that is worth way more than the quality of the school as assigned by some ranking system. Agreed. My comment is from experience as well though. A lot of my classes in HS had to be slowed down to the slowest student (no child left behind I guess), but the better students were frequently bored. I'm glad I was lucky enough to be able to take advanced classes, but I still think one's school has an impact. Exposure to certain topics or classes can certainly impact a student's life (in my opinion). For instance, high schools with a compsci class, I'm sure will have more students becoming SWEs than high schools without.
  - abigail95 4y ago
    If school funding has no advantage on life performance then we need to drastically cut all funding and just save the money. That seems so unlikely to be true I can't be bothered reading the rest of your comment. A single example of a school spending program that has positive results would collapse your argument.
    - lupire 4y ago

by gsk22 4y ago

yellow_lead 4y ago

Technically 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 ago
You 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 ago
  And raise traumatized children like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32946010.
  - lupire 4y ago
    That person would be traumatized at private school too.
- Bud 4y ago
  Those 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.
gsk22 4y ago
I'm a product of one of the shittiest public schools in my state. While I attended, they were forced by the state to convert to an "international baccalaureate" school because the alternative was closing. I say that because yet, among my peers from that school, I count engineers, astrophysicists, doctors, IT workers, psychologists, pilots, and more. So I would vigorously argue against the idea that students who attend underfunded public schools are at a disadvantage for life. The biggest impact I noticed is home life and the involvement of parents. If you are a parent who cares and pushes your child, that is worth way more than the quality of the school as assigned by some ranking system. Additionally, my exposure to a rough-and-tumble school with people of varying backgrounds (i.e., not a single socioeconomic stratum) gave me empathy and social skills that are extremely useful in everyday life. I'm not saying your choices are wrong, but I strongly disagree with the premise that a less-than-ideal public school leads to lifelong negative consequences.
- yellow_lead 4y ago
  > The biggest impact I noticed is home life and the involvement of parents. If you are a parent who cares and pushes your child, that is worth way more than the quality of the school as assigned by some ranking system. Agreed. My comment is from experience as well though. A lot of my classes in HS had to be slowed down to the slowest student (no child left behind I guess), but the better students were frequently bored. I'm glad I was lucky enough to be able to take advanced classes, but I still think one's school has an impact. Exposure to certain topics or classes can certainly impact a student's life (in my opinion). For instance, high schools with a compsci class, I'm sure will have more students becoming SWEs than high schools without.
- abigail95 4y ago
  If school funding has no advantage on life performance then we need to drastically cut all funding and just save the money. That seems so unlikely to be true I can't be bothered reading the rest of your comment. A single example of a school spending program that has positive results would collapse your argument.
  - lupire 4y ago