Is it smugness, or is it different outlooks on life?
We moved to a top performing school district because providing our children a quality education is a priority. We believe it opens many doors to our children.
I can believe that and value that without being smug.
What I wonder is why don't the folks who live in areas with the gyms as you describe, take a more active role in making education better.
I look at the school "reports cards" that are posted. When you look at a nearby district such as East St Louis, IL, it's one of the top spending/student districts in the state. Certainly more than my rural district.
But what are the outcomes?
The rural district where I grew up outscores ESL on everything other than qualifications of faculty and amount spent per student.
So for less money, with fewer teachers with advanced degrees and/or experience, the rural district out performs the district where money is funneled in by the truckload.
Maybe it's not how much is spent, but how much the community values education?
Again, no raises in teacher pay are going to address the parent problem.
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
An easy fix I see for the U.S. system have the state fund public education so every board gets the same amount of money per student state wide. Averaged out there is probably enough money for a solid education system in most states. Well to do boards would whine but they can still fundraise for the extras.
New Hampshire's system
When you get a smallish state with pockets of poverty and pockets of relative richness (seacoast), making one part pay for the other is, well, interesting.
I honestly think people in the top 5% of suburbia aren't content with "good schools", they have to rub it in the noses of others, like when they visit a poor school for sports and the poor kids have junkier facilities. Then in the car ride home Dad explains why the basketball bounces funny on their rotten floor.
Kind of like the "I have health insurance...
and you don't, because of your life choices" smugness that I don't really understand.