Equitable Public Schooling

[Amy in NH]

17 hours ago, Farrar said:

And, honestly, on a homeschool board that's heavily Christian and white, I think we have to acknowledge that many of the options *we* have used for our children - namely home education and charter schools - have been a part of the problem in terms of funding. Many early homeschool families left the schools because they didn't like integration. Talking about how the schools were "bad" now was a proxy for complaining about race in many early homeschool communities. We probably all chose homeschooling because we wanted the best for our individual children. But this is something we have to grapple with, I think. Obviously we all believe in some measure of school choice. To what extent does that hurt equitable schools? Because it definitely does.

I'm only going to address the homeschool part of your post, because I think the rest of it is spot on...

I pay the same school property tax regardless of whether my kids attend or not.  If my kids were in school, the number of kids they divide the school budget by would increase, so the cost per pupil would look lower, but the budget would not actually increase due to my kids' attendance there; their attendance would only suck the resource of teacher attention away from the other students.  The school would not receive increased state funding for my kids attendance - all school funding in NH comes from local property taxes.  So, I would argue that I am doing all of the other students in the school district a favor by keeping my kids home.

Living in a racially homogeneous region, the one in which I was born, my kids would not be exposed to a greater number of minorities races if they were attending our local schools.  I would argue that we participate in activities that expose them to a more racially and culturally diverse group than they would be getting in the schools.  But honestly, their greatest exposure to intimacy within racial diversity is their interaction with the Hispanic uncle, the gay African-American auntie, and the adopted Chinese cousins and their continuing education to retain their cultural heritage.

I recognize that this is not the case for everyone, and I think we should all be mindful of these issues.  And I also struggle to think that if these facts were not the case I would probably still not be willing to sacrifice my kids' individualized academic instruction and our family homeschooling lifestyle on those altars.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Amy in NH

[Bootsie]

16 hours ago, Farrar said:

A conversation about whether or not schools can be equitable where a majority group of white people support the idea that because we're a very heterogeneous society, we probably don't stand a chance and where equitability as a concept and goal is dismissed by some is one that, I'm sorry, does feed into a racist narrative. I don't doubt the good intentions of the statements - and I agree that understanding that we can't replicate small, homogeneous countries' school system here as easily is an important factor to be aware of when people toss around things about how great those countries schools are. But also, intentions are not everything. This conversation is repeating a lot of tropes about education in the US that simply do not support change because they assume we're doomed out of the gate.

One of the first things a conversation about equitable schools would have to start with would be to recognize that this issue has gotten significantly worse, not better, in the last several decades and that a big part of that has been school de facto re-segregation. A lot of that is not only along racial lines, but also economic ones. However, a lot of it is along racial lines. We were moving toward integrated schools and BIPOC folks were making huge gains. And then we moved away from integrated schools and lost that ground.

And I think we have to recognize what Ruth brought up - that giving the "same" funding is not a solution if the goal is equal access to education and an equitable experience. We'd have to fund poorer schools more heavily. Governments can do that - there are models that do it. We can choose not to use those models... but then that's a choice we're making not to do those things. It wasn't impossible to be done.

And, honestly, on a homeschool board that's heavily Christian and white, I think we have to acknowledge that many of the options *we* have used for our children - namely home education and charter schools - have been a part of the problem in terms of funding. Many early homeschool families left the schools because they didn't like integration. Talking about how the schools were "bad" now was a proxy for complaining about race in many early homeschool communities. We probably all chose homeschooling because we wanted the best for our individual children. But this is something we have to grapple with, I think. Obviously we all believe in some measure of school choice. To what extent does that hurt equitable schools? Because it definitely does.

I think the bolded really depends upon where you are.  I do not know that it is a sweeping, general statement.  I think it can vary greatly depending upon whether you are talking inner-city schools or more rural schools.  

How has home education impacted funding and equity issues?  I really do not see how my homeschooling my child led to less equitable funding of schools.  In fact, it seems the opposite.  The money collected for public schools did not change one bit because I homeschooled my child.  So, that left more money to school other children than what would have been there had my child had gone to public school.  Because the state allocates money on a per child in attendance formula, my local district received less money from the pool of funds--which left more money for other schools. 

[frogger]

1 minute ago, Bootsie said:

I think the bolded really depends upon where you are.  I do not know that it is a sweeping, general statement.  I think it can vary greatly depending upon whether you are talking inner-city schools or more rural schools.  

How has home education impacted funding and equity issues?  I really do not see how my homeschooling my child led to less equitable funding of schools.  In fact, it seems the opposite.  The money collected for public schools did not change one bit because I homeschooled my child.  So, that left more money to school other children than what would have been there had my child had gone to public school.  Because the state allocates money on a per child in attendance formula, my local district received less money from the pool of funds--which left more money for other schools. 

I think the argument is that we won't clamor for more and more funding since our kids are taken care of. 

 

Of course, most parents (I hope) recognize that kids in public school will make up the society our children have to live, work, and socialize in. We know our kids are better off if the public school kids are better off. 

 

I find that funding for schools is more an ideological position among voters and has very little attachment to whether they have a child in school or not. I have heard anger at wanting to raise school funds by people who have multiple children in school and I have seen support for schools by people who have no children in school. You have to be one of the two tribes to decide how to think. Lol 

 

 

[Bootsie]

2 minutes ago, frogger said:

I think the argument is that we won't clamor for more and more funding since our kids are taken care of. 

 

Of course, most parents (I hope) recognize that kids in public school will make up the society our children have to live, work, and socialize in. We know our kids are better off if the public school kids are better off. 

 

I find that funding for schools is more an ideological position among voters and has very little attachment to whether they have a child in school or not. I have heard anger at wanting to raise school funds by people who have multiple children in school and I have seen support for schools by people who have no children in school. You have to be one of the two tribes to decide how to think. Lol 

 

 

To me this is an argument about whether homeschooling causing someone to be less supportive of total public school spending.  That is a different issue than support, or contributing to, the equity of public school experience.  

[Clemsondana]

2 minutes ago, frogger said:

I find that funding for schools is more an ideological position among voters and has very little attachment to whether they have a child in school or not. I have heard anger at wanting to raise school funds by people who have multiple children in school and I have seen support for schools by people who have no children in school. You have to be one of the two tribes to decide how to think. Lol 

 

 

I think there's also the group that would support more funding if they thought it would be used for something that actually helps.  I do not support increased funding so that smartboards can be installed in classrooms.  They may be great, but they aren't necessary.  I'm also not a fan of funding to put an ipad in the hands of elementary schoolers.  But, if funding would be used to put reading and math specialists into elementary schools so that they get help before they get passed along or give up, I'd be on board with bells on.  If they needed funding so that kids could have a workbook-based program, like Singapore Math or HWOT, rather than the no-book-and-random-handouts method currently used here, I'd be good with that, too.  But, it seems like school districts choose to fund things that they can take a picture of rather than things that will be the most helpful.  I am not at all a fan of throwing random tech at the problem and hoping it helps.