Supreme Ct. ruling allows more opp. for white kids

I don't know enough to say you're right or wrong. I do know we have an excellent local school district to which I contribute about $2,000 a year.

 

Can you explain? I'm not following you.

Good school districts increase the value of local real estate. People are willing to pay more for the houses & higher taxes to have good schools (not everyone wants them, but enough people for it to be acceptable). It is a local tax for that district because they basically have the exclusive rights to it. If you take away the exclusivity, I think people would be upset about having to pay the higher taxes.

So you are saying that it would be up to each parish/county to decide if they would keep the tax? If they chose not to, where does that money get made up?

And I'm assuming that buses would still only run within the district, correct?

 

Is that a magnet school? I know they operate a bit differently.

 

yes. baton rouge high is a magnet school. my sister chose to go there and so did lots and lots of other kids, so not everyone got in, and there was a lottery and a waiting list. gifted schools work differently for some reason, if you are in, you are in, they make room for you.

so there are a couple options in baton rouge, although i dunno if they end up being appreciably better than just making neighborhood schools.

 

From my travels, it seems Louisiana is different than most other states. In Louisiana, the funding comes from the state and, basically each school gets so many dollars per kid.

In other states, the predominant method of funding education comes from the taxes generated by that school district. So, in wealthier parts of a city, the schools will be much, much better strictly because the parents choose to "tax themselves" more to pay for it.

One example that I know of is West Bloomfield, Michigan. This little surburb of Detroit is one of the wealthiest in the country. it's where all the big auto execs live, and most of the doctors, lawyers, and indian chiefs live as well. So, the West Bloomfield schools are some of the best in the nation. The high school regularly pumps out National Merit Finalist at rate greater than just about any other public (or private, for that matter) in the country. I had a friend who went there and when I told him that I went to private schools in Louisiana, he asked me "WHY?" I told him that you just couldn't get any kind of education in Louisiana unless you went to a private school. According to him, the kids from West Bloomfield that went to private school were typically the troublemakers who need "extra attention".

The POINT, if there is one, is that school choice in Louisiana is a much different animal than in most states. The parents of West Bloomfield tax themselves to pay for this great school. If their kids were forced to travel into inner city Detroit to attend school, those parents would not vote for school taxes to benefit other children.

In Louisiana, it might work because all schools basically get the same. The question then becomes why do these low performing schools in Louisiana perform so low if they are basically getting the same funding?

If it's parents and "culture" where they live, then no amount of bussing will ever change the situation.

 

57% from the State but the dollar amount, per student, varies from Parish to Parish See chart below. :thumb:

Think those are Independent School Districts......very popular in Tx.

They hardly get the same $$$ and your're correct in answering your question cause they don't all get the same caliber of students either. "Bussing" disperses the low achievers and levels off School Performance Scores (SPS) and brings each school, in theory anyway, closer to the mean...........if people would realize that the Parish's score remains the same.

It backfired in Evangeline Parish; however. A federal judge came in and re-zoned but MANY whites, including myself, said phuck you and went to the Private schools. Sad part is, my wife and I both work in the Public Schools but there are SO many public school teachers who send their kids to private schools, it's a blackeye on our profession that never gets brought up......why? The Central Office people (Supervisors, board members, etc.)are not exempt in this. This was posted earlier in the thread but I'll repost it for you to see the funding breakdown. :thumb:




Public schools funds come from three levels: federal, state, and local




It varies from year to year but sometimes as much as $8,000.00 per student on the October 1st enrollment, by District. There are some States that allocate up to $13,000.00 per student.







Minimum Foundation Program

http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/finance/673.html


Also, Title I funding based on number of "At risk" students, which are students at or below the poverty level. These monies are primarily used for Pre-K programs, hiring additional staff to decrease teacher/pupil ratios, and items, determined by each school staff, to be a "Need" for higher achievement. Computers, magnetic chalkboards, bulletin board paper, etc.