What do you think of jailing parents who commit "educational theft" ?

American government as we all know is by the people, for the people and of the people. So what are people waiting for? This 'jail' penalty is preposterous indeed! Here in India for example one is free to get one self admitted to any school of one's choice as not all schools have standards that could be termed as 'ace'.

Thing is some struggle to afford homes in a particular school district to give their kids all the benefits they can. To them it seems unfair that someone else can go to the school district without following the rules. I have mixed emotions on this and just wish they wold improve ALL schools...

But the American Federation for Teachers itself wants to control how the schools are improved and leave parents out of the process. They are more concerned about protecting the jobs of some incompetent teachers than seeing that the interests of the children are served.

That's what the parents in Connecticut wanted to do, buthte teachers' union fought the law the parents were trying to get passed to let parents have the power to see that failing schools were reorganized. I used to teach in both public and private schools. It was always interesting to me to see that private schools often got better results than public schools when private schools spent less money per pupil than the public schools. I'm not talking about private prep schools for the rich, but Christian schools and such for middle class kids.

There is so much waste in public schools and they are top heavy..too many administrators telling teachers what they should do when they should be listening to the teachers...congrats you surived public schools

Competition would help. And one should not expect raffle sales, and garage sales to raise money for school books. It hurts when I learn of teachers breaking the copyright law so that their students can have enough books to study. The trouble is that because of keeping all the bad teachers the students are not learning anything. For instance, I have spoken here on my lot about things that people here in Nprth America should know, but then I find that they know nothing about it. Teachers should be able to teach, not just sit and warm the seat. My father-in-law used to be a janitor and when there was a fir in the school, he got some of the old readers, and it was a lot different from what they have now.

It's not that easy to kick out the bad teachers because of both tenure and the teachers' unions. A lot of money thrown at schools is not used to get better teaching. And, it seems, students are having to raise the funds in some schools to buy better materials. I just talked to a teacher ordering some of my materials. She was ordering one each of consumable student workbooks without reproduction rights and she said they can't afford to buy enough individual books so each of her ten students can have one, so she will be reproducing them. Her students are trying to raise more money to buy more books. I will fill her box (flat rate) with slightly damaged books I'm supposed to donate to try to help her out, while also letting her see some other avaibable materials that will help her. What would improve schools is competition that a voucher system would provide. If parents can choose their schools, the bad ones would have to improve or go broke. Schools would have to concentrate on improving student achievement instead of just passing on kids who really are failing.

I agree 100%. If the parent values education then he/she teaches his/her child to value education. Or like my mom, there are some parents that didn't get a good education but made Damn sure their child gets a good education, that works too. But if you have parents who never liked or even cared about school , they don't tell their kids to value education.But there is also the color thing , Not the hue of the children but the color Green. If you have the money , you can remove Johnny / Jane from a badly run school and put them in private school or get a tutor. But if you are poor, the school you get put in is where you stay. By not giving All our kids a good education is and will remain to kick us in the butt! We already have a generation of kids who will earn less than their parents.And I hear many are not going to college because it is too expensive.This mess will never get fixed. The more schools have to have kids pass the test, the more kids will be taught Only how to pass the test, the more will drop out , the more lower classed citizens we have , the lest taxes there will be.

The federal government pays lip service to caring, but when Obama came to power he put an end to the very successful voucher system that made it possible for blacks to go to good schools in Washington D.C. I think after enough pressure came to bear the program is being reinstated. My mind does not retain facts well, so I'm not sure if these were charter schools or private schools. Some people of color do get a good education in public schools if their parents can afford to live in the right school districts. I really think a lot has to do with parental involvement, though. If you compare Hispanics and Blacks to Asians, you will find that Asians who came here not speaking any English tended to do better than all their peers in school -- including white students. It's also Asians who dominate the universities, if they are not hindered by affirmative action quotas. Asian parents put a high value on education and made sure their kids learned the language, studied, did their homework, etc. Later, when the boat people came from Cambodia and Vietnam, their children did not do as well because some of those parents weren't educated. I used to tutor some of the adults from Vietnam in English when my church adopted a family. That family was unable to assimilate into American life and finally moved to Los Angeles to be with people who spoke their language. I lost track of them after that. So it's not race as much as parental eduction and involvement. One of my friends from a racially mixed church I used to attend lived in Baldwin Hills. The neighborhood was racially mixed, and I believe blacks were in the majority at the elementary school her children attended. Her family was Asian. That school had one of the best reputations in the Los Angeles School District at that time. I only know two families who live in that neighborhood, both Asian, but their children went to that school and the local high school, and I believe all their children went to college or went into business for themselves. But the parents themselves had an education and were involved in their children's school. I think blacks and Hispanics are every bit as intelligent as Asians and Caucasians, but I think if they come from families who don't really value education or go to schools where the parents of the other students don't, there will be low expectations for them and they won't be challenged to do their best. Even those who grew up speaking English as their only language are often passed in achievement by those who came here not speaking English. Part of this may be that they just don't think they need an education and don't really try. I've had a lot of these students in my high school classes and they just didn't care about learning. Yet I also had classes of students in the same schools who did very well and did go to college and become professional people.

Very good points. People wouldn't falsify documents if the schools were not so different in the education they provide. The only answer they seem to have on how to fix schools is to throw more money at the problem and to kill any successful program becasue if students start to be successful, the schools will have no excuse to get another grant to solve the problem. A school district adminstrator told me that once. He was a personal friend who was concerned about it and he was speaking as a citizen, off the record. That was several years ago, but it would not surprise me if it were still the case. This happened to be in California.

I'm with you there, but maybe there are some parents in this position who didn't vote for them.

This is a government by the people. If 51% would rather not allow people to have options, it's simply how it goes. We answer only to ourselves. We all can vote, and we all suffer. Perhaps we should do a better job educating the public? Perhaps the public doesn't care. I don't know, but this is how it works. Besides, I'd bet you $100, that lady voted for Obama. Care to take a wager?

That's what I would think. I guess it doesn't matter which state form you falsify in determining a penalty -- one form is as good as the next.

Thank you so very much for this discussion. Talking about it all day is not enough. It should ring from the roof tops every time the sun shines. It will take a while for all of us to discover our real power. Thank you.

It seems the farther we have come from letting parents control their local schools through a local school board (as they did when I was growing up) the worse education gets. It's the involvement of parents that makes students successful. The more the family is undermined, the worse the schools will be, as well. I think some African American families are waking up to the fact that the government and teachers' unions don't have their best interests at heart and mostly after after their votes. Then maybe they will learn to vote accordingly for those who do want real reform.

I'm glad you are happy with the school your children attend. It's too bad that "No child left behind" did leave plenty of children behind.

Thanks for that added insight into this. I was unfamiliar with the case until yesterday. I guess there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.

I think we have to make a distinction here between the bureaucrats and the teachers. The state officials are chasing the money per student, and I don't think their district gets that if a student is from out of the district. OTOH, in my state it's the county that collects the property taxes that this money comes from, and all the districts are in the county and, of course, in the state. Sometimes districts make trades for spaces with another district as a student in each district transfers to the other. I think the crime here is that parents can no longer have local control over their schools because the federal government got involved in trying to make things fair for minority students by bussing them to districts or schools far from their homes, and trying to even out minority distribution in the various schools. Instead of improving education for all, I believe it might have done the opposite. My own solution would probably be to have a few stricter military-like schools for students who don't want to learn and continually make it hard for teachers to teach. Three strikes (visits to the principal) and you are moved out of the regular school so the ones left there can learn in peace. Then put special teachers trained to deal with disruptive students in the special school. The special schools should focus on teaching trades and preparing students to pass the GED instead of forcing students to take classes they will never need. Those who want to go to college later can catch up in junior college or even take classes in junior college while still in high school.

Education should be improved and children should be educated one way or the other. Schools have to be flexible if it comes to that. My 2 youngest just started at a new school (the school just started). The goals of the school are to make people of the world out of them. From the age of 5-6 years old they will start with English lessons. The teachers have to develop the talents of each child (no matter what kind of talent they have). All kids will have music lessons, art, painting, drama etc. At this moment my daughter has only 9 kids (number 9 started today) and my son only 7 kids. So they do get a lot of attention. Only 1 teacher so the change to build a relationship with that teacher and other kids. The school also organizes a lot for the parents (brunch at Sundays, bbq etc) so they get close too and feel a part of the school policy. You have to sign an agreement (what the school will do and what you will do for your kids, but if you can't agree with it they will make one especially for you). All kids go happy to school (they are there whole day from 8.15 am till 3 pm or 4.15pm) none is ever late and all the parents are great, friendly and happy too (less stress at this school as the others). If (older) students are not willing to learn I agree with you you have to force them. It's a terrible thing that kids who grow up here are still not able to read and write well. Also.. if these special schools would look for the talents of these kids school might be better for them too. Nothing wrong with a boarding school idea where kids also are raised to be good human beings, help out eachother and be responsible of their own deeds. If we let the group who doesn't like to study go we (society/government) will get the bill for that sooner or later anyway. So better at a young age as ignoring them now because it looks easier now. There should be good education for all children possible and the prices should be the same.