As
a parent with two parents as public school teachers,
a brother who teaches at a middle school in Tigard, and grandparents on
both
sides of my family who were also teachers, this sometimes can be a
touchy
subject. But, you know what? I
believe what we are doing for our kids is the right thing.
Schools today try to teach
to a test or to the dumbest
kid in the class, so they don’t
make
certain kids feel bad about themselves. This basically makes our smart
children
dumber and does nothing for the kids who really need just some one on
one help.
But, that isn’t
really what this post is about. This post is about the
budget cuts proposed by our
state and how this could affect our kids in the public school system
that already
seems to be failing them.
Our government says they
need to cut teachers salaries,
or cut certain programs, in order to make the budget in the next two
years. This is where even my 10
year old daughter can do
math well enough to figure out something doesn’t sound right.
She wanted to
know where the money was going.
You see, in
Oregon, each school gets
approximately $10,000 per child per year.
That comes to $25,000 dollars a
month when you multiply that by a classroom of 25 kids and then divide
it by 12
months. The average teacher in Oregon, with benefits package, only
makes about
$51,000 on average, according to the Oregon School Board Association.
So, let’s do the
math here….
25 kids x $12,000 = $300,000
$300,000 - $51,000 = $249,000
Now, I went to college and
books cost a lot per year… So let us say
each kid gets $1,000 worth of books
per year.
$249,000 - $25,000 = $224,000
I’m even going to
add in $2,000 per student per year
for bus drivers, electricity and water.
$224,000 - $50,000 = $174,000
My 10 year old
- “Mom, Dad, doesn’t it
only cost you about $3000 to teach all of us, including the cost of
books per
year?”
Me - “Well, Yes,
that is correct. It only costs us about
$3,500 for all of you, and
that includes memberships to things like OMSI, The Oregon Zoo, and the
sports
programs for you every year.”
Daughter –
“So, where does the rest of that money go
then?”
Me – “Well child, that
would be the
$64,000 question and the same
reason we keep you out of public schools. Do
I want people teaching you that can need more supervisors than they do
teachers
to do the same thing”
You see, my
attitude is my kids are very
well educated and I’ve
seen many public school kids that are also very well
educated. But what I’ve noticed is, it’s those kids
that have parent help and
interaction in their lives.
I would like to see the
public school system go back
to the days were they had 20 kids, one class room and one teacher who
taught
everything, like my wife does with my
kids. We don’t need principals, we just need teachers that
have the right to
discipline kids when they misbehave and give them the freedom to teach
instead
of indoctrinate.
Todd Clark - broker
Kastings & Associates
Phone: (503)524-9494
Fax: (503)622-8739
©
2009 Todd Clark - Beaverton Oregon Home Schooling –
Where public and private don’t meet in the middle
