After listening to the debate between Duke Professor Helen Ladd and Harvard Professor Marty West about the funding of our schools (“Getting Our Money’s Worth“), a reader sent this comment:
I don’t understand why we’re not talking more about the great things our teachers are doing in spite of being under funded. What don’t our schools have? My goddaughter asked for a ream of copy paper for Christmas a couple of years ago! Her whiteboard is actually plastic shower stall wall material that can’t be cleaned. She works in the Boston area.
Our schools are giving our students wonderful, whole child educations. They’re winning awards for the wonderful things they do with parents, students and other community members but we rarely talk about it.
What do the almighty (all richy) charters have – facilities in good repair with great technology, small classes, resources we can’t even dream about? That’s what I hear is the case for many charters. Where does that money come from? Do they save so much by not paying certified teachers that they can afford all those amenities or do they get tax deductible gifts from afar? How much more money does all their splendor take? Can community public schools get some from the same places? How about just enough for small classes?
Proud of public schools
Mary
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I feel like lauding teachers for their hard work and positive impact is a great idea and I wish we did it more. However, lauding teachers for doing good work even when conditions are so poor sets us up against the conversation that we don’t actually need any further funding since clearly if we worked harder with what we already have we can do good things on a shoestring budget. This can become a slippery slope.
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What is a “whole child education”? How is it distinguished — if it is — from an education in which children learn to read, and to love reading, and come to possess a knowledge of the classics of the Western world? Is it different from an education in which children learn how to factor a quadratic equation, learn when the Civil War was, learn what makes up an atom? If it’s something else, what is it?
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This country is crazy. When profits out score the public education system of this country, something is very wrong. I am more than sick of marketers, lawyers, politicians, news gossip, and the hysteria from the “chicken littles” who make HUGE profits by yelling the, “Sky is falling down.” Well, the emperor has NO CLOTHES ON!
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I see your point. However, I can’t see the reformers ever admitting that we’ve done anything well under any circumstances. I want the people living in rich suburbs whose heartstrings were the targets of Ballot Question 2 supporters in MA to know how they can really help.
I think silence on our part looks like an admission that we’re incapable of doing our jobs or that our own educations and certifications are superfluous.
I want people who listen to the likes of John Kasich to hear what actually goes on in teachers’ “lounges.” I want them to see fifth grade students being encouraged by their second grade teachers in schools where the staff doesn’t change every year. I want citizens to see the real creativity and joy of learning going on in our public schools. Then, I want them to send us some tax deductible donations or at least adequate funding.
Mary
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Where do the Charters get the money for small classes, facilities in good repair, great technology, etc.?
They are not required to have “fire-proof buildings” [Brick and mortar], so their buildings are easier to maintain and are usually newer constructions.
They generally are just K-6 schools, middle schools and high schools are far more expensive to run.
They generally can put any warm body in the classroom as a teacher, or hire certified teachers fresh out of teacher training schools. Their staffs have minimal health insurance if they are offered any at all, don’t have any form of job security, and certainly no other fringe benefits or retirement programs.
If you haven’t checked lately, technology has become very inexpensive over the years.
But they don’t have the big budget killer that regular public schools have willingly added to their expenses and which sucks the life out of their budgets, inter-scholastic sports! I taught for 37 years in public schools and I watched my new textbooks, updated technology, field trips for students, even any salary increases disappear into this monster! Get sports out of public education, make them club sports and have the parents whose kids (a small minority of all students) pay for the true cost of sports.
The Charter schools don’t generally enroll “special education,” troubled, or handicapped students. They tell the parents of these students that if they want the best education for these students they need to be enrolled in a regular public school.
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Kenneth,
Charters have high teacher turnover. Their hours are long, so they burn through young teachers. Very few charters (7%) have unions. So most of their teachers are at the low end of the salary scale and don’t stay around long enough to get a high salary. That saves money too. Veteran experienced teachers are costly.
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Maybe some of that money and taxes housed offshore in other sovereignties hat American companies enjoy so much . .. Maybe some of those funds can pay for the items RageAgainstTheTestocracy is suggesting?
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Where the money should go:
Modernizing aging/crumbling facilities
Air conditioning
Fully equipped science labs
Musical instruments
Art supplies
Theatre sets
Phys ed equipment
Teachers
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Automotive repair shops
Trade shops (heating and AC, plumping, construction)
Computer repair shops
Up-to-date computer labs
Auditorium
Engineering design labs
Invention labs
Cosmetology equipment
Robotics labs
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Where is the money going to go? Trump wants to cut the corporation tax from 35% to 15%. With all the loop holes, the corporations didn’t pay anywhere near 35% and some corporations like GE have not paid federal taxes for years at a time. It’s Reagan and Bush all over again. Savage tax cuts mainly benefiting the rich, the working class gets peanuts, the annual deficits are exploded (they predict a 10 trillion dollar deficit over 10 years). That’s lost revenue on top of supposed deficit spending on the infrastructure. Then the deficit hawks will scream for the “unaffordable” social programs to be cut while military spending goes up. Will Trump start a war with Iran or lord knows where?
Slightly off topic but not really.
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Sadly, war is good for some businesses. Dick Cheney and company know that war equals profit for all sorts of military contractors. It is the individual families of those that serve and our young people that pay the ultimate price.
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“Sadly, war is good for some businesses.”
Yep! And that has been known for a long time. See Marine General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket” from 1935:
https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
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