Oh brother....more freebies. My parents not only paid property taxes, but paid for Catholic School Tuition AND had to pay for uniforms and school supplies. Parents today don’t have any idea how good they have it.
I just paid $400 for my daughter’s text books plus more for supplies at a U of California that is heavily subsidized by my tax dollars — that plus 30% more in tuition. I am dreading the engineering books I have to buy for the next one (chemical or mechanical, he hasn’t made up his mind yet) when he starts up in a few weeks (already bought the engineering calculator). But now, it’s possible to rent or even download textbooks for a lot less.
I agree that there are many justified complaints about public schools and teachers, however, my youngest just finished AP classes in Chemistry, Calculus C (Diff EQs), Physics II and Biology scoring 5s and one 4 on the tests. He had wonderful teachers about whom I have no complaints, they put in a lot of extra time (that they didn’t have to) helping the kids learn the material, study and review for the tests.
Thank God for those teachers because there is no way I could help my kid with those particular classes, I’d have to hire someone (turns out HE did the tutoring himself).
Not all teachers are lazy a-holes who ignore kids while sitting behind desks reading the paper, waiting for their “fat pensions” — which in California is 65% of a teacher’s salary after 30 years, average teacher makes $60,000.
The AP physics teacher at my son’s school told me AP Physics I and II are now combined into one class making it very very difficult for him to teach two different classes in the same room — that plus the school refuses to give him the $$ he needs for equipment for experiments, ditto for the AP Chemistry teacher. The AP biology teacher was moved into a smaller classroom so his larger classroom, which was set up for experiments, could be turned into a “reading lab” for struggling readers