<p>I just read an article where a particular legislator is trying to give 3 schools an additional $1,000,000 each. The legislator is trying to do this because those schools either don’t have PTAs or their PTAs don’t raise a lot of money, while other school in the district raise a lot of money from parents and therefore can spend extra on “nice to have” things.</p>
<p>I understand that there are people that want to make sure that every student has exactly the same opportunity as every other student, and to make sure everything is fair and equal for all students.</p>
<p>I don’t buy it, because unfairness is inherent in our life. We all are blessed by having special attributes in our life that others don’t, and others may have attributes that we have. I think it’s important in life to make the most of the opportunities that we have and not sit around and fret abou the opportunities that others have and we do not.</p>
<p>In my own personal case, I am not handsome, nor was I given a deep masculine voice. I like music, but have no sense of tone or rhythm. I am not skilled at writing eloquently. But I was given an knack to handle money, and have done well with life. And it irritates me when people see that as unfair, as in countless ways others have been given opportunities that I’ll never have.</p>
<p>Without seeing the article, I can’t comment directly, but I will say I am one of those “Life is not Fair” people. With that said…from what you say, this guy is simply trying to help kids. Kids don’t ask to be born. For the most part kids can’t change their circumstances. In a case like this, “pouring” money into education is never a poor investment.</p>
<p>He didn’t push his budget item through because some schools have PTAs & others don’t, he did it because he didn’t get his charter bill approved.
Haven’t heard anything about what the money is to be used for or who is going to be accountable for it.
But the taxpayers will be the ones paying for it.</p>
<p>Wow–it’s the 21st century version of “Let them eat cake”! I think you’d feel differently if you had a child at a school with broken computers, an under-equipped library, not enough instruments have a band, no budget for field trip transportation, etc. But I don’t think PTA’s should be allowed to fund extras at their own school–all donations should go into a fund shared by all the schools in the district. It’s in everyone’s interests, in the nations’ interests, that each child be afforded as much opportunity as possible to succeed.</p>
<p>In my opinion, good teachers and strong/honest school administrators can continue to provide an excellent education despite having inadequate funds. Many of the problems in public education can be attributed to things other than the school’s available funds.</p>
<p>This was MY high school. We didn’t have a lot of money. Still, we survived, and we suceeded.</p>
<p>I can say looking back at the success and failures stories from my graduating class, new computers or more band instruments wouldn’t have helped the students who haven’t thrived in life.</p>
<p>Of course we can’t guarantee outcomes, but we must provide the opportunities. I can’t support a situation where one student in a public district has an enriched environment thanks to the largesse of some parents, while another student in the same district does not. Public education is in fact one area where “fairness” is required.</p>
<p>“life is unfair – so don’t bother doing anything to address inequities” </p>
<p>It is this attitude that causes personal relationships, communities, cultures to stagnate and eventually die. The only way to keep a civilization moving forward is to work to make them better. This may not be the best way to address this particular inequity, but a least he is out there swinging, not just sitting there letting things fester. Because when you let things fester, eventually the wheel turns.</p>
<p>My concerns are twofold. First, if money isn’t the answer, then wasting time making finances more fair is actually avoiding addressing real solutions. Second, if money is spread around equally (which I neither support nor oppose in this instance), when failure occurs, will the next step be to give all the money to the failing group to attempt to fix the outcome?</p>
<p>“Money isn’t the answer”, but almost everyone on CC seems to pay good money to either live in the “right” neighborhood, or pay for private school.</p>
<p>Sometimes it sounds more like “money isn’t the answer for other people’s kids, but I know it’s necessary for mine!”</p>
<p>Is this the district in Washington? If I lived in an area where parents worked hard to raise money only to see a major portion of our funds give to other schools I would be pretty upset too. I read about this elsewhere and someone showed that the receiving districts were already getting significantly more per pupil dollars from the state than the districts that raised the large amounts for the PTA’s. So what is really fair?</p>
<p>“I think it’s important in life to make the most of the opportunities that we have and not sit around and fret about the opportunities that others have and we do not.”</p>
<p>You think this is what first graders in poor schools do? Sit around and fret about what kids in the suburbs have that they don’t? How would they even know?</p>
<p>Is there any level of deprivation or unfairness that would justify government action for you? Racially segregated schools? 100-student classrooms? I mean, people could just get over that, too.</p>
<p>Schools which have programs that families want to enroll their kids in & teachers want to teach in, attract economic diversity which can provide more support for the school & students.</p>
<p>For some reason, Seattle doesn’t want to do that.Or more accurately, I would say the * administration* doesn’t want it- the families do.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know first grade. But I do know a middle school teacher at a school in a very poor community. Those middle school kids don’t come to school half of the time. Or they spend all day in the gym rather than in class. She tried to fail one of the basketball stars because he didn’t do his homework or pass his exams. The principal put him into special education so she couldn’t fail him (and therefore he could keep playing basketball.)</p>
<p>Sadly, another million wouldn’t do a darn thing for this school. </p>
<p>(Note that I didn’t say the school was poor - I don’t know the per pupil expenditures. It is in a poor community.)</p>
<p>Rainier Beach is actually in a pretty decent neighborhood, close to the shores of Lake Washington. My daughters school used to have their track practices there, because * her school* didn’t have a track. Rainier Beach also has a professional quality performance theatre.</p>
<p>The district does not listen to the community as to what they want & need, which is probably why the school is still struggling.</p>
<p>I went to one school for a year that had essentially no budget for much of anything. We couldn’t afford janitors, so the students took the trash out each day and cleaned the school. When overhead projector bulbs burned out, the teachers worried there wouldn’t be any more replacements. We had no library, no gym, no band.</p>
<p>But, it was one of the best years of education of my life. Teachers - essentially volunteer - and lots of parental volunteers (it was a private school. Tuition there today is around $4000 per year.). No amount of money could have replaced the parents or dedicated staff.</p>