F@*%ing School District!!! F@*%ing Tea Party!!!

[katydid1971]

Well because school funding is totally nonexistent our school district has had to cut about 30% of the classroom teachers. That means at DS's school the first, second and third grades are going from about 24 students in a class to 36. Yes you read right 36 students in a first grade class. The school DS goes to is losing several wonderful teachers to move to other schools. I'm not happy about it but I felt like our principal had a plan and was going to make this transition as easy as possible and would provide good support for the teachers, students and parents. Well we just got an email that they are moving our FANTASTIC principal to the middle school and bringing in an assistant principal from another school. As if this school isn't going though enough they are taking away the anchor that makes the school run smoothly. I'm so angry I can't see straight. We have already cut over 10 school days from the calendar. I really feel like the there are people working to destroy public education and they don't care that they are hurting my children, and lots of other peoples, in the process.

[elliput]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:

[larig]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:

:yeahthat: X a million

[niccig]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:


:yeahthat: X a million

:yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat: x a trillion.

I've never understood cutting education.

[wellyes]

I do understand it. I just don't respect it. It's about disliking unions and wanting to shrink the Federal government.

[ahisma]

I'm sorry. DH is a teacher. I don't understand it either. At ALL. Chances are that those teachers will get paid less this coming year, with more students...and people will STILL think that they're lazy bums and villainize them.

There is a real push to turn education into a profit center and slash funding to the public institutions as much as possible. It's sickening.

I hope that things play out well for your DS this coming year. Are there any alternatives available at all? 36 students in a 1st grade classroom is pretty darn intense!

[citymama]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:

:yeahthat:

I'm so sorry OP. Our first grade class is 30 and I can relate to how angry you are. Our priorities are seriously screwed up. I hate that people mess with our children's future for their own political gain.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I do understand it. I just don't respect it. It's about disliking unions and wanting to shrink the Federal government.

:yeahthat:

[ncat]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:

Not sure about the other occupations, but we import scientists and educate/train them at the graduate and post-graduate level.

[elliput]

Not sure about the other occupations, but we import scientists and educate/train them at the graduate and post-graduate level.

I know. And we should not have to. :irked: Please don't get me wrong here, society has benefited tremendously from people who have come to the US to be educated and I know the importance of the concept of "best and brightest", however, we are doing our own children a disservice in the mean time.

[roseyloxs]

The overpopulation of school classrooms is in my top 3 reasons for wanting to homeschool next year. Teaching to the test is also in there. Too much homework is in the top 5 as well. I may not end up being the perfect teacher but its hard to beat that teacher/student ratio.

[elizabethkott]

I agree a gagillion percent.
As a public school teacher, it IS really frustrating.
And what's REALLY frustrating, is the knowledge that (at least around here) the public schools are villianized, while everyone wonders why the private schools can have such great results and high-profile college acceptance rates. You know why? Because those kids don't have to take the state mandated tests. The teachers in most private schools aren't held back by high-stakes exams, their evaluations aren't tied to student scores on high-stakes exams, and their class sizes are usually capped off at about 18 students. And private school teachers don't have to be state certified, don't have to have a master's degree attained within the first three years of teaching (that the teacher pays for, BTW), there is no state-mandated continuing professional development, and no one gets their panties in a bunch over the unions within the private school, the benefits packages the teachers receive, or their salaries. If we could all teach classes of 18 students without focusing on test scores and how those test scores will directly impact our livelihoods and teach the way our students learn best, yeah, we'd be having similar results too.
But no one sees the forest for the trees. Especially people who have never been in the forest.

[kijip]

I am with Wellyes. I know the objective, I just lack all respect for it. It may be less costly but I believe it to be a big case of "penny wise and pound foolish." Because we are homeschoolers, some people assume I don't care or have written off the public system. That is not the case. I do care and I want and need there to be a strong system of public education as the vast majority of families use it. I am all for fiscal responsibility. I am not for trying to balance the budget on the backs of school children, sick people and the elderly.

I am curious as to where in the PNW does the tea party has a meaningful influence on education funding. In WA state, I would blame the voters at large and our wishy washy Democratic governor, who I would like to make have to personally explain to each and every person affected by her inaction why they don't have health insurance, home health aid or special education assistants anymore. Maybe while she is at it, she should have to personally apologize to each and every university family looking at yet another year of double digit tuition hikes all while their kids can't get the classes they need to graduate due to over enrollment. I am a Democrat and I have had it with the democrats who care more about getting reelected than taking a stand for what people elected them to do.

[carolinamama]

I have never understood the concept of cutting funding to education- we are just damaging the long term health of our country by doing so. Educating our youth should be THE most important agenda- how else do we get scientists, architects, doctors, business owners, more teachers, etc- yeah, even politicians need to have a good education. :banghead:

Very well said.

[KpbS]

Outrageous! I'm sorry, OP, that is simply a ridiculous number of students in the classroom. I would be seriously pursuing other school settings for next year. :hug:

[ellies mom]

And now you know why we moved to Camas.

Don't mind me while I drag out my soapbox. This cannot all be placed on the tea party. This has been going on for years. School funding in Oregon is so incredibly messed up. It is like the vast majority of the state couldn't care less about the quality of the school but the areas that do (Portland metro, Corvallis, Eugene) and are willing to better fund the schools are hamstrung by the rest of the state. Portland metro puts so much more money into the state coffers for the schools than they get back. And for all that money, they have nothing to show for it. The schools are struggling and have been struggling for years. They are not going to get better any time soon because any change that is made needs to be made on the state level and most of the rest of the state has no reason to do anything about it because they are getting more money than they pay in. It was so frustrating. When we moved to PDX, we did that whole "little house in nice neighborhood" just so we could send our future kids to good schools and then we just watched them go downhill.

Anyhow, all of that to say that, yes, I'm sorry. It sucks.

[AnnieW625]

Ellie'sMom we almost moved to Camas in 2002 before DH got laid off. It was the best of both worlds even for a couple in our early to mid 20s, Portland and tax free shopping were right across the river, but the Camas schools were right there, and at that time we were 4 yrs. away from having kids.

I agree with your entire post. It sucks and as much as I want to support public schools and have friends and a sister who are teachers both DH and I over the moon happy we decided to send DD1 to Catholic school. Granted the class sizes aren't small (DD1's class should have 30 kids next school year), but there is a librarian, a PE teacher, an art/music/drama teacher so for grades 1-6 there is adequate time for the teacher to not have all 30-35 students in the class at one time in the earlier grades; and kindergarten has a full time aid. I also love that I don't have required fundraisers therefore I don't have to pester neighbors, family, and friends like it seems all of the better elementary and k-8 school parents have to do. I pay $390 a month and $155 for daycare and if my kid was in public school I'd be paying close to $400 a month next year just for after school care (last year it would have been $775 a month due to shortened kinder hours).

I also blame Proposition 13, which changed the property tax structure in the late 1970s in CA, and I am also convinced it is what made CA such a high col area.


I do understand it. I just don't respect it. It's about disliking unions and wanting to shrink the Federal government.

:yeahthat: I don't like my union at all, and neither does my DH, and my sister who just finished her first year of teaching and who is very liberal can't stand the CTA either. I never vote for the people my union endorses especially on the local level, except I did vote for Obama.

[ellies mom]

After the debacle that was the Sacramento Unified school district right before I moved up here (2000) and the mess that is Oregon funding, living in our district is a huge relief. I really don't like living in the suburbs but I'm frequently reminded that we are doing the right thing. If we had stayed or moved back to Portland, we probably would have gone the Catholic school route.

[AnnieW625]

After the debacle that was the Sacramento Unified school district right before I moved up here (2000)....

Woodland Unified went through a similar debacle in the early to mid 90s. My mom has never really come out and said it but she knows myself and even kind of still my brother got a better p.s. education ESP. in elementary and jr. high than my sister did who grad. high school in 2005. Even with that said if we had lived in Sacramento I thinks siblings and I would have done at least k-8 Catholic.

[HannaAddict]

I agree a gagillion percent.
As a public school teacher, it IS really frustrating.
And what's REALLY frustrating, is the knowledge that (at least around here) the public schools are villianized, while everyone wonders why the private schools can have such great results and high-profile college acceptance rates. You know why? Because those kids don't have to take the state mandated tests. The teachers in most private schools aren't held back by high-stakes exams, their evaluations aren't tied to student scores on high-stakes exams, and their class sizes are usually capped off at about 18 students. And private school teachers don't have to be state certified, don't have to have a master's degree attained within the first three years of teaching (that the teacher pays for, BTW), there is no state-mandated continuing professional development, and no one gets their panties in a bunch over the unions within the private school, the benefits packages the teachers receive, or their salaries. If we could all teach classes of 18 students without focusing on test scores and how those test scores will directly impact our livelihoods and teach the way our students learn best, yeah, we'd be having similar results too.
But no one sees the forest for the trees. Especially people who have never been in the forest.

Don't forget the self-selection component for the private schools. We are have excellent public elementary schools in our neighborhood and thought we'd use them, but were worried about the awful superintendent at the time (since fired), and the huge class sizes projected for my son's K year. We went private with 16 kids in a class, a masters degree, certified teacher and a master's degree, certified teachers' aide shared with the other class (so three "teachers" for 32 kids), and no freaking out about a test but focus on learning and differentiated learning at that. The down side is lack of economic and racial diversity (not that our public schools here were very diverse, they are like private schools with uber PTAs and huge auctions). I love my child's teachers but sometimes it seems a little over the top with most kids having tutors, lessons of all kinds, enrichment activities, etc. Most have parents with masters degrees or more (lots of doctors, more than lawyers), etc. and parents who are super involved, both parents participating in school even if have "high powered" careers, and the resources to get their kids help whenever they need it. Public schools and public school teachers have a tough time, not enough resources, too many kids to help in the time allotted, and not all parents having the resources (monetary and emotional) to put in since many are just focused on surviving, putting food on the table and paying the bills.

[maestramommy]

As an aside, NCLB needs to die. Most ill-conceived notion ever. Our district is pretty awesome, but things still happen because of the way they tabulate and average scores to determine if a school is "in need of improvement." No common sense whatsoever.