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Homeschooling hits record numbers

(reason.com)
193 points bilsbie | 8 comments | 21 Nov 25 00:31 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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jmathai ◴[21 Nov 25 01:56 UTC] No.46000348[source]▶
I do think Covid forced people to ask questions they hadn’t before.

We have sent our kids to private, poor quality and top rated schools.

We saw a stark difference between the poor quality and higher cost options. No surprise.

But the reason we are considering home schooling our younger kids was surprising. It says something about a system dedicated to teaching children when parents think they can do as well or better.

That’s just education. The social situation in schools is ludicrous. Phones, social media, etc. what a terrible environment we adults have created for kids to learn both educationally and socially.

Home schooling has answers for ALL of that.

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rich_sasha ◴[21 Nov 25 05:29 UTC] No.46001520[source]▶
I suppose there are few talented, hard working people who want to teach, and they command a premium. Education is expensive and underfunded.

As a parent/carer you probably are much more motivated than an underpaid teacher who wanted to do something else anyway, and you don't have to motivate yourself with money.

By extension, IME, motivated and talented teachers in any school (good or bad) can do wonders. There just aren't that many. And as you say, school environment tends to be a race to the bottom - if Johnny can watch Tiktok during maths, I'll do the same.

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rahimnathwani ◴[21 Nov 25 18:56 UTC] No.46007623[source]▶

  Education is expensive and underfunded.
Expensive yes. Underfunded depends on where you are.

San Francisco's school district has an annual operating budget that equates to $28k per student.

I've heard people in San Francisco say that schools here are underfunded. When I ask them how much we spend per student per year, their guess is usually less than half of the actual amount.

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triceratops ◴[21 Nov 25 19:02 UTC] No.46007686[source]▶
$28k doesn't go as far in San Francisco because of the insane cost of housing and everything else.
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SauntSolaire ◴[21 Nov 25 19:06 UTC] No.46007737[source]▶
How does housing cost affect the cost for a school to educate a student? Are you saying it's the cost of paying for the school's real-estate?
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1. connicpu ◴[21 Nov 25 19:13 UTC] No.46007806[source]▶
It affects the minimum viable salary for a teacher to even be able to live in the city where you want to hire them to work, same for all the other support staff that make a school function.
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2. oceanplexian ◴[21 Nov 25 19:39 UTC] No.46008103[source]▶
I don’t buy that argument, there’s no reason a teacher in San Francisco can’t live in Oakland or Berkeley, or a teacher in NYC couldn’t live in NJ. You don’t have a human right to live in the most expensive real estate on Earth.
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3. mynameisash ◴[21 Nov 25 19:55 UTC] No.46008245[source]▶
GP didn't say anything about it being a human right. You seem to be strawmanning their argument.

I think it's a reasonable expectation that even in HCOL places like SF or NYC, people in careers important to society should be able to live in the communities they serve.

4. michaelt ◴[21 Nov 25 20:05 UTC] No.46008361[source]▶
With a budget of $28k per student, and 21 students per classroom, that’s $588k per classroom.

Now, granted, some of that goes on building upkeep, cleaning, supplies, heating, pensions, managers etc - but if $588k per classroom doesn’t let you pay enough to attract teachers there’s something very suspicious going on.

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5. rahimnathwani ◴[21 Nov 25 20:40 UTC] No.46008734[source]▶

  there’s something very suspicious going on
Yup! SFUSD has ~9,000 government employees, and only ~50,000 kids.
6. BobaFloutist ◴[21 Nov 25 20:54 UTC] No.46008866[source]▶
The price of SF real estate affects the price of real estate in Oakland and Berkeley. So it's still a relevant input variable.
7. joshstrange ◴[21 Nov 25 21:11 UTC] No.46009043[source]▶
Yeah, screw the teachers, they should just have a longer commute, who cares about them? /s

I always want to laugh when I hear people complain about finding near-minimum-wage workers in a HCOL area. They can't seem to grasp that commuting is not free, it may feel free to them at their income level but transportation costs money (gas, car maintenance, insurance or bus, etc) and time. I'm not saying teaching is a minimum wage job but it's not a high earning one either, paying them as low as we do _and_ also asking them to have a longer commute is just absurd.

8. FireBeyond ◴[21 Nov 25 21:44 UTC] No.46009340[source]▶
Keep that argument going.

Jackson Hole residents complaining about "poor service" in stores and restaurants in town, because shocker, servers can't afford to live in Jackson Hole. And unlike even SF or NY (which may not be perfect but have at least functional transport), there's no easy way to travel from the next town, an hour away or more.

Residents have started banding together to rent coaches to bus people in, which seems the most reasonable solution, after all, no poors in town, still, and it doesn't hurt the residents that service industry employees in their town have a three hour commute. /s

It got so bad in Atherton, CA, that the school had to build accommodation for teachers in the school itself. Next step, they can do janitorial work for extra money!