• Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    It’s not just financial though. Mississippi spends around $12k per student, and Oregon spends about $17k - that’s over 40% more per kid. California spends $24k. The way we do schools needs to be fixed top-to-bottom

    • 404found@lemmy.zip
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      12 hours ago

      You’re probably right. I just hate that teachers have to ask for basic school supply donations to do their job. For example, glue sticks aren’t something a kindergarten teacher should ever need to worry they will run out of. Give these people the resources to be successful. What do you think needs to change?

      • Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world
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        47 minutes ago

        Man, I don’t know. A lot of the extra expenditure is probably going to special needs services and new educational tech/programs. Between the two, in more skeptical of the latter. Walk into any kindergarten around here and you’ll see big screen TVs in front and an iPad for each kid. I’m sure the bigger expense is licensing the “Alpha-friends” show or whatever and I’d love to see that go.

        I also think COVID was hugely disruptive - not only to the kid’s learning but also to parent expectation that their kids try in school - Oregon has terrible parental support of kid attendance and learning. Parents need to blame their kids for failing more

        As for solutions, I think we need to scrap No Child Left Behind. Leave kids behind in their last grade until they pass - I think MS did that, some say to inflate the scores. Loading teachers with students that don’t have a foundation makes it worse for everyone. Tying standardized test scores to funding also turns a metric into a target and worsens thing.

        I don’t know man. It sucks and I’m just an idiot on the 'verse, but after seeing the ‘whole language’ approach fail so hard, I’m also skeptical of experts