School Thoughts

As school approaches, I always began to think about the coming school season. Children graduate from pre-school, kindergarten, middle school, high schools and college. I begin to think about all the money that parents have paid in order to assure their child were getting a quality education. As any parent can tell you, even if your child is going to public school you still have paid for their education through taxes, fundraisers, and other surcharges.

As I was following this train of thought, I began to wonder what is the real cost of education for each child in the public school system is in comparison to a private school and the answer I found left me speechless.

My daughter graduated from Kindergarten last year and the teachers she had from pre-school into Kindergarten did such a great job! Imagine a five-year-olds reading sentences and doing first grade math! I find that amazing! The credit goes to her teachers at Garden Gate Montessori. Sometimes I still wish we could have stayed at Garden Gate because as a Kindergartener her math challenges were much greater than even the public school's First Grade curriculum. After all, you can't find fault with a program when they have demonstrated such success.

Unfortunately, Garden Gate only went up to Kindergarten and the costs to continue my daughter's education within this wonderful program were expensive. Imagine paying out an additional $5300.00 for a full-time education program. I use the word "additional" because I have already paid for her public school education, and I couldn't transfer my tax dollars to the school we thought best suited her needs.

So, as a curious individual, I checked to see what the state was going to pay in order to educate my daughter. To find these facts I discovered the State of Illinois Requires an annual School Report Card (Check with your school district to get one for your child's school), which tells parents the various statistics about the school their child is attending including the testing scores in English, Math and Science.

It has to be publicized, but I can tell you it's not a very well known or an easy report to find. According to the report for 2007, my daughter's school has reportedly allocated $8514.00 per child for operational expenditures and 5032.00 educational expenditures. That's $13546.00 per child and this doesn't include what the State is getting from the Federal Government!

Now, as a child of the Illinois public education system, I can tell you I certainly wasn't reading by the age of four nor were any of my class mates. Math was my nemesis and the only science I remember is Earth science. So here is the question I put to you, if I was getting a high quality education for my daughter for $5300.00 why is the state doing so poorly spending $13546? I could have my daughter in one of the best private school in the state for that much a year!

Now I don't blame the teachers for this educational mess, I place the blame directly where it belongs with the State, Federal, and Local governing bodies. I believe children in this country deserve to have a high quality education without their parents having to spend their future college funds to get it. What do you think? If you feel like I do call your Federal, State, and Local representatives today. Tell them you would like a school choice program. You should be able to take the money that's allocated for your child to the school that will best fit the needs of your kid.

Every child deserves a quality education and we can well afford it with what we're paying right now per child in our public schools! We are spending $13546 a year per child in my child's public school so why we are ,as a nation, almost last in the world in Reading and Math? Think about it the next time your school cries out for more funding or talks about cutting teachers as my district plans to do next year. Our poor teachers need help and their talking about increasing class sizes!

By the way, the administrators in my daughter's school make more money than the teachers in her school. I think that's all wrong. The teachers should be making more money than any administrator should! The way the current system is set up, you only start making money in education when you stop teaching! We need fewer administrators, more teachers, and teacher's aids! Moreover, as parents we need to support our teachers they're not responsible for parenting our children we need to take responsibility!

If the public school system is failing your child ,as a parent, you should be able to take your tax dollars and move your child to a school that will help them excel. What do you think? Tell your Local, State and Federal Representatives Today! Don't let another school year go by; get the best for your child today. We already can afford it!