How do you feel about private education?

[Perotista]

Hi All,


I am wondering how you guys feel about private education. I saw the below article on BBS and it made me wonder. And it made me wonder about private education in general. Not the fee increases discussed in the article.

Delhi: Rising school fees push Indian families to the brink

Parents accuse private schools of steep fee raises which are stretching budgets to breaking point.

www.bbc.com

I am a Dutch citizen living in Thailand, and we have 3 children of which one I am the father.

In The Netherlands, private education is considered for rich people only and few people in The Netherlands are able to afford private education. When I got older I started to look at things a little bit differently. The strange thing is, here in Thailand, it seems to be normal for kids to go to private schools, and this is a developing country! Something does not make sense, right? I struggled with this.

I first got confronted with education in Vietnam where a young boy I knew was in a public school and got hit by the teacher. I was shocked and I was so mad that I asked the police to come to my house and explain to me if this is acceptable or not and if anything can be done about this. This already shows that you are in a different culture, because you do not just call the police to your house in a normal country I think, but this is what happened. What can I say...

I now know that it is still common practice for teachers to correct kids in the class; with a ruler.... In Vietnam I was told that this was not legal, but that the kid would suffer in school if I resisted to the teachers doing this. This was in a public school.

Back to Thailand. Because of my experience in Vietnam, I started to look differently at education. I also saw my wife's children in public school, and I was not impressed. A lot of time is spend on teaching things that are not important I think. I mean how much time do you need to spend daily about the king, the fatherland, and the national anthem? I also saw with her kids that 'bribes' have to be paid for additional lessons so that they learn enough to pass the exam. It is my impression, but I fail to back this up with evidence, that they deliberately do not teach certain lessons at school to force the kids to take additional lessons, hence creating additional income.



I struggle to form an opinion. Just genuinely looking forward to ideas, thoughts, and considerations.

Joey

Private schools don’t bother me. But enrollment in them as you stated is usually for the rich. What I found out is private schools provide a much better education than public schools. But I think that is because private schools can choose and pick who they admit whereas public schools have to take everyone. Private school usually have better control and disciple over their students with much stricter rules. Rowdy students are kicked out which can’t be done in public schools.

Some even require uniforms which of course you see this in Thailand. If you can afford, by all means send your kids to private schools.

 

[Lord of Planar]

No vouchers. Republicans use those to destroy public education. If the rich want to send their kids to exclusive schools, they're gonna do that anyway, and they can pay for it themselves.

What would be wrong with a variable voucher rate? One simple thing to do would be to give the parents 1/4 the cost to teach a student attending a private school. Allow this percentage to increase as the student to teacher rate or capacity of students gets difficult to manage. It needs to be recognized that some schools are overcrowded, and need to reorganize some how.

I am for vouchers simply because the public schools are failing their primary job. Failing miserably.

 

[Helix]

What would be wrong with a variable voucher rate? One simple thing to do would be to give the parents 1/4 the cost to teach a student attending a private school. Allow this percentage to increase as the student to teacher rate or capacity of students gets difficult to manage. It needs to be recognized that some schools are overcrowded, and need to reorganize some how.

I am for vouchers simply because the public schools are failing their primary job. Failing miserably.

No vouchers. I don't support Republican efforts to destroy public schools, and I have no desire to compromise with those efforts.

 

[Lord of Planar]

No vouchers. I don't support Republican efforts to destroy public schools, and I have no desire to compromise with those efforts.

Well then demand that the schools start teaching again. Demand that they be competent again at their teaching.

 

[Revelation]

Well then demand that the schools start teaching again. Demand that they be competent again at their teaching.

Florida has figured out that Vouchers work for them, what took them so long. ?

Other states have not figured out that Vouchers will work for them, what is taking so long. ?

My state pays out about 50% of the budget for education, again same question.

Apparently we get Better Education for less money, what is wrong with Better education for less money?


blessings. Zero days to go.

.

 

[Josie]

Well then demand that the schools start teaching again. Demand that they be competent again at their teaching.

Schools never stopped teaching, LoP.

 

[Lord of Planar]

Schools never stopped teaching, LoP.

They stopped teaching in a competent way.

 

[Josie]

To answer the OP question - it all depends. There are good teachers and bad teachers. There are teachers who don't have enough (or any) training in education which happens when it's hard to find highly qualified teachers. It becomes a dire "just find a warm body" situation. This is happening in public and private schools. A group of trained teachers who love their job are going to be great for your child no matter if it's a public or private school setting.

 

[Josie]

They stopped teaching in a competent way.

They didn't. Please stop insulting all of us teachers.

 

[Lord of Planar]

They didn't. Please stop insulting all of us teachers.

Do you really think education today is on par with what I received in to 60's and 70's? I know better.

 

[Josie]

I would love to ban private school entirely. You can't have a true meritocracy if from birth the children of wealthy people receive better instruction than everyone else and poor kids are excluded entirely from their social circle. If rich kids had to attend public school it would give their parents a greater interest in ensuring that those schools are appropriately funded and staffed.

But I know it's a pipe dream, especially with this SCOTUS. And probably impractical. Rich people will always find ways to rig the system, whether it be moving to insular suburbs where they can have their own "public" schools, or paying for outside private tutors and test prep.

How is it "rigging the system" to move to a place with great schools or hire private tutors?

What other parts of the private sector do you think should be banned?