Public School? Private School? Part 2

After 1 year of discussion, excuse me, I would say 20 years of debates, the education system in here is still not promising. With the new student assignment redesign, I don't see the improvement or attempt to improve of the school quality. There's only a lie that the school district superintendents would like to fool us parents or fool themselves on giving a solution to the current problems.

Racial diversity? What is the business of it to the school district? USA is a country with different races and we have total freedom to choose where we live. Why it matters for us to choose to live in a community of the same races? It does not matter me, why you concern about mattering me?

Equity of access to high quality schools? If the under-performed groups do not concern about that, why you think that it bothers them? Does it just like us forcing some people to go to college when they don't want to? But, the ones who want to attend colleges get no chance because they are not poor enough or rich enough.

It's not a game of the superintendents to test. They are real children! We are real parents! It's not like a chess game. If you fail, just start another one. It's a real life game! If the child fails, would he or she able to start again? We parents already have so much stresses and pressures and this stupid student assignment system already draw so many people crazy. Why so many parents fraud to get their children in good schools? Why middle class parents cut their other spending to send their kids to private schools? It's because the current system "persuade" and "stimulate" them to do that.

Some nuts raised silly questions and ideas on cutting yellow bus services and making more restrictions, etc. to "protect" the system being gamed. Why don't you guys think about improving the quality of the schools? The teacher quality, the principal quality, the curriculum quality...all these matters, not the student assignment itself can benefit the students. I can understand that the federal budget and state budget had been cut and the school district needs to find the ways to trim down their expenses. However, I can see the biggest expense of school district is salary: 700 people costs $80.5 million a year and we will be having a deficit of $113 million in a year or two. How the school district is going to cut this deficit? The answer is the benefit of the students: yellow buses, teachers, extra-curriculum funding, support, after-school activities...

I'm getting tired to see or know that. Private school may not be a real solution but I would not want my kids to go through those. Our financial situation is another story. If I lose my job, I may have no choice.

Public School? Private School?

Spencer is going to Kindergarten in Fall 2011. I have started checking out information and attending school tours since last month. My friends Ken and Viola filled me with a lot of information and updates about the school system here. Their kids are already in the Pre-K and the 2nd Grade. They have gone through the whole process of enrollment and know a lot of weird things and insider stories.

Viola had enrolled her daughter in 7 private schools and 7 public schools, she had toured close to 20 schools, worked through different assessment processes. Ken had just finished his public school enrollment for his son. He is the one who keeps track of the school system changes and gives me a lot of reference. Originally, he supported public school system and had great confidence of sending his son to public school. However, with the recent news on budget cuts, new enrollment system, teacher layoff, etc., he is now intending to send his son to private school.

To me, I am 50/50. If Spencer can be assigned to a good public school, ideally in the immersion program, I will definitely let him study in public school. It saves us money and good public school can be more beneficial than a so-and-so average private school. Regarding school politics or parent struggle, I believe that it would be the same in either public or private school. However, with the recent updates on how the student assignment system would be changed and the fact that the USD will cut more funding and teachers, I am not impressed to take a risk, especially that I know traditional academic school may not be suitable for Spencer. he needs a lot of attention and persuasion to thrive. I have seen his improvement and learning in pre-school recently and it further reinforce my belief on what kind of school would be suitable.

In my home country, there are limited numbers of public schools and a lot of government funded schools. The system there was said to be suck but it is still much more liberal and transparent as compared to here. It is really disappointing to see politics comes first in the expense of children's benefits. What those officials are thinking? What kind of schools are they going to send their kids to? If they are not willing to send their kids to the public schools that they have designed, then why the other parents should believe that it is the best system?

School Fundraising

These days, I have been busily preparing the online auction of my son's preschool. It's the biggest and major fundraising activity of the school. Last year, the school had raised $15,000 through this online auction. This year, we would like to see if we can keep this up. My husband is pretty against fundraising activity. He believes that the school is asking for too much, the parents who are in charge have their own agenda and they are not going to listen to other people's suggestions and comments. I agree partially. They have been in the school longer than we do. They have seen what work and what do not. Likely, some parents are close and they have made up their own mind before coming to the meeting. Sometimes, I feel left out too but I am willing to do my best to help out the school and I have been doing the similar kinds of work for 15 years before. By doing all these, I can find a lot of satisfaction and I enjoy all kinds of project-based tasks. What can be more enjoyable when you finish a project that you have planned it out, worked it through and finally gained a success?