Parents Suing School System

This falls under the category of "wow". While I find parents demanding accountability something to applaud, I rethought my opinion after reading the article. These parents in Orange County, FL, are suing because their kids are not getting the best education. Heck. I could have told them that! One reason we homeschooled our kids! The reason that the parents claim that the education is substandard is due to the amount of money spent per child. OK, hold on now! What? Parents are demanding that Florida, and Orange County specifically, spend more money per child in school. Where do they think this is going to come from? Pulling it out of our collective a--'s?

Read the article HERE

Do these people know where the government money comes from? Is it a total mystery? I know I have an economist son, but please! TAXES! Yup, it is OUR money that the government so freely spends. "Shouldn't we spend it on the CHILDREN??" Of course, but what OTHER program would you like to cut? Programs for the blind? Old people? People with disabilities? The library? Hell no! No one wants to cut anything but the government needs to spend more? More what? More of the taxpayers money! There is only ONE pie (represented as the tax money) and it can only be sliced in different ways. We can't make more pie.

Unless....well we could start having a state income tax! Sure, just like every other state except for a few, like Florida! Everyone would love that! How many people move to FL, TN, TX, AK, NH or NV because of the lack of a state income tax? I know it was one reason we stayed here in FL.

The article goes on to say that per student spending here in FL is pretty low, but we also have no state income tax. Our property taxes are fairly low as well. My house in Lake County, FL is taxed about $2,200 a year while my sister's smaller house on a smaller property has taxes nearing $10,000 a year! We are talking apples and oranges here.

What is the answer? Well, homeschooling and private schools, which are not for everyone I know or maybe throw the doors open to all schools and parents pick where they want their kids to go. Let the per-child money follow the child to any school. We'll see the public schools scramble to offer up some better options then! Nothing like a little, dare I say it? Competition!

Public School Waste of Money

Although this comes as a "duh" to homeschool people, there are so many ways that the public school systems waste our money! As home schooling parents we still must pay school taxes if we own a house, or we pay the taxes anyway through any rent we pay a landlord. What do we get for our school taxes? Not a hell of a lot! When our kids in Florida reach high school age some of them can dual enroll and the tuition is free, although books are not. That's what I get for my school taxes. At least we are not in New York City. There, some teachers (700 of them) are paid to sit in a room and do nothing. While collecting their pay. Which averages around $70,000 a year! Oh and it appears that they get vacation time as well. Vacation from the grueling work of doing nothing. This is what the unions have led us to. Sigh. Please read the article here:

700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing

Amazing!

Home Schooled Students Starting College

When my kids were 16 they started Dual Enrollment at the local community college. They each were nervous about it beforehand. My daughter is the older child and went through this first but what is funny is that my son also went through the same insecurity. "What if the public schooled kids know more than I do?" "What if the public schooled kids can do better in college than I can?"

Now, it is almost laughable! Both of my kids maintained a 4.0 throughout their dual enrollment and each went on to keep up a good GPA through the university level. What is funny is that they need not have worried about what the public schooled kids knew, it was not the knowing of facts that was different. What my kids found out was that the public schooled kids, on average, did not want to work for their knowledge. They were used to getting the facts and "knowledge" handed to them on a silver platter!

Group projects were a chore for my kids since they had to badger the other students to get their work in! My daughter was like the Mom of the group always delegating and trying to make sure that the group members did their job. How sad. My son has come up against this as well at a different university in Florida. Public schooled kids do not seem to have the same work ethic, when it comes to college classes, as home schooled kids. Period. I know, I know, your nephew who is at MIT and was public schooled is a go-getter and works full time and still manages an active social life and keeps up a 4.0. OK, sure. There are some exceptions to the rule. I also know a couple of home schooled kids who couldn't pass a college class. But as a whole, I see that the public school system needs to make kids accountable. Mom and Dad can't complain that Johnny got a C and now he can't get into the college of his choice. Well, too damn bad! Obviously it is not just schools who have to make kids take consequences for their actions.