BWillie |
04-11-2016 04:06 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowser
(Post 12172882)
Brownback is simply destroying the Kansas educational system with his tax cuts aimed at helping small business owners. It worked literally the opposite as he sold it, and now he's bleeding the public school districts to make up the shortfall in revenue, forcing these districts to beg to raise taxes in their said districts. It's a mess. I wouldn't live in Kansas with a small child on a dare right now.
That said, Blue Valley still is a very highly regarded school district right now, but for how long remains to be seen. There is an exodus beginning of teachers leaving Kansas for Missouri (and Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado.....). Do some serious research on the subject if Johnson County is your dream location.
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Still, 4.3% unemployment rate in Kansas.
I think public school system needs a complete overhaul, and funding needs to be curtailed. In almost every state. So, I'm fine with Brownback's initiative to cut school spending. Just not the way it's done now. It's not a great model to start off with. It's highly inefficient. Kansas spends around 14k per student, and that isn't enough? GTFO.
What I don't agree with is cutting teacher salary. The #1 key IMO to encourage learning is the teacher. The teacher needs to not only be smart, but enthusiastic and engaging. You could easily SAVE tons of money by paying teachers more and drastically lowering the infrastructure costs for schools. Every class doesn't need 25 ipads. There is already too much showmanship. The goal is to LEARN. I think you could even lower costs and IMPROVE the quality of education by utilizing a TA system where good high school student mentors get high school credit & pay (at their option) by helping out local elementary & middle schools. This would enable schools to have less actual teachers, but much better and higher paid ones. This would result in somewhat larger classes, but higher engagement. And less cost.
I didn't learn anymore or any less because my school was or wasn't a state of art building, or amazing architecture. The #1 thing that helped me learn, by far, was the instructor or teacher. We need to be more practical. More on teachers, more on people, and WAAAAAY less on infrastructure. We need to think differently on how to be not only more efficient but better educators.
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