the problems with school systems in my opinion are born from poor parenting. but the reality is that there will always be poor parenting and therefore the school system will be crippled by its attempt to compensate.

Good parents can make a horrible school situation a positive. plenty of good parents in bad districts churn out positive experiences for their children.

The only parents that send their kids to Dundee Crown High School are ones that can't afford private school. Most that can't just move out of the boundary before their kids get to high school. Our homes are worth between $100,000-$150,000 less than comparable houses in Kane County in areas like Geneva.

Dundee Crown provides an average IL public education (average ACT score exactly matches the IL average) with 49% kids deemed ready for college by the state report card. But in today's America, average is considered great. Thanks Trump.

You're right, my kids would be fine. They would lose a lot around the margins, be it smaller class sizes or Christian values, but they would still go to college and be successful.

We moved to West Dundee from Schaumburg with the express intent to avoid D300. We have stuck to that goal. The only change I would have made going back would be to get them into a K-12 school in the beginning instead of at middle school.

What have you chosen for your kids?

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Lots of words to agree with me.
My kid will go to public school barring extreme circumstances.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I have a friend who is a long time CPS teacher who believes if you took the kids from his school and put them in New Trier and took the kids from New Trier and put them in his school, his school would test like New Trier and New Trier would suddenly not be a "great school". And that's because of the level of parental involvement.

I think it's obvious that the money makes a difference but probably not the way most people think it does. It's not the school budget so much as the income of the parents. It has to be a lot easier to be an engaged parent when you're not worrying about next month's rent.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It isn't.

It is easier if you have two parents

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think all the numbers support that as well.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Yes, the two biggest factors in school success are always parental income and parental education level

I think BRick should move to Carpentersville for all the excellent schools there.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I'm confident enough in my parenting ability that I could raise a successful child going to those schools.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Charters are not the answer. They try to couch it under the guise of school choice as a means of avoiding ever having to discuss how bad the vast majority of them happen to be.

Affluent neighborhoods want no part of them. They are pushed on impoverished neighborhoods primarily. Politicians know that they won't get much push back from parents. There is no way that anyone can make the argument that students will receive a better education by sending their kids to charters. Most of the teachers are uncertified and a number haven't a clue as to what they are teaching.

Charters seek to bust unions and depress wages.

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This is true. And part of it is the peer group. Kids emulate other kids, so if there are a group of driven kids they are going to push each other. And Jorr is dead on with charter schools. As corrupt as it gets.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

My mom used to say, "If you want to learn, you can learn anywhere."

Abe Lincoln learned in a log cabin. I even know a really rich guy who learned at Conant.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Charters are great for lining the pockets of their owners. It's about getting as many kids and possible onto the rosters, while paying teachers as close to minimum wage as possible.

One dirty charter school secret is that many students simply do not show up. I knew of kids who would just leave for a month or two. If the school reports them as truant then it's a kid off the roster and their are no fees. So there were many immigrant families who enrolled kids, then would return to their countries for months.

Really a bizarre arrangement that mixes the worst parts of privatization and public. The charter school kids are drilled in state testing though.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

U.S. school shootings since 2013: 210.
Grizzly bear attacks at American schools since 2013: 0.

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

If we had stayed in Schaumburg, we were fine with sending our kids to D54 and D211 public schools. My wife and I both went through those schools systems. All of my university education was at Illinois public schools as well- UIUC, UIC, and NIU. I relished passing the CFA exams next to guys wearing Wharton and Kellog sweaters. Yeah I went to NIU's business school.

I just want the same high quality education that I received for every student. And when I see our country's composite international rankings (17th out of 50 at the sites I checked today), it really shows that we are failing our kids as a country. It'd be like the best team in football, the Patriots, starting to flub draft picks and free agent signings year after year. The team may be on top now, but it will eventually catch up with them.

We're not some third rate country. Yet, for many students, they are getting a sub par education. KD is right in that parents are the biggest determinant. Maybe that's really the bulk of the problem, our cultural issues. We had a South Korean high school student stay with us for a semester. Success is culturally ingrained in her. She went home for the summer. I asked her what her friends would be doing, well they stay in school during the summer. So I asked what she would be doing since she was off. She said eight weeks of studying.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Proof that guns prevent bear crime.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Those rankings are a crock of shit and the more people worry about them the worse our education system will go down because all anyone gives a shit about is some score on a test. That score says little about the quality of schools and much more about the quality of our society.

Public schools provide a good education -- IF the kids want one. The real reason people send their kids to private schools is to separate their children from the poor and/or troublemakers that can be found in public school. Not the quality of the education - unless you determine quality by the type of cars the parent's drive. If you want schools to take over parental responsibilities for you, then you might, as well ship all kids off to boarding school as soon as they stop breast feeding. Otherwise, suck it up and make your kid go to school and do their homework and give them expectations. No matter what school they go to, they will be successful.

So her point is based on the same argument that Ralphie did in A Christmas Story?

"Flick said he saw some grizzly bears down by Pulaski's candy store!"
They looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Isn't she for rolling back the Dear Colleague letter that has spawned these collegiate kangaroo courts across the country adjudicating claims of rape or sexual misconduct, oftentimes denying access to attorneys and cross examination of witnesses/accusers? I'd be on board for that.

It's also pretty alarming that the first thing people think to note when detailing bad or otherwise unscrupulous traits about someone is "billionaire". Like having a lot of money is inherently evil or amoral.

One of my exes just posted on Facebook how distraught she is that her kid will be attending school "under this administration". What the fuck does she think is going to happen? Trump, Sessions, and DeVos show up to lobotomize her kid's kindergarten class? It's hard to take these people seriously.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

It's more difficult to learn when your only meals of the day are coming at school and you are taking your life in your hands during the walk to the building.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Generation Snowflake.

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Elections have consequences.

These parents are hilarious.

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Yup. Lots of privileged private school folks acting like they know.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

The first part is true, no question.

But I don't think anyone really feels they are taking their life in their hands when they attend their school or walk through their neighborhood. That's what they know. It would never occur to me to be wary on Howard Street, but it's obviously a high crime area and a dangerous place. But I was nervous as hell when we went to wrestle at Mt. Carmel. I bet Peeps finds that silly.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

we really do disagree on the "any school" point but its been argued so many times nothing more can be said (maybe not could but should). Even with this disagreement, I think we agree that some schools place a big impediment towards accessing the education you could get at any school.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yes, but the Common Core mandated "teaching to the test" wastes of time shows how malicious, arbitrary and worthless their notions about (and requirements for)public education are, and to which extent they will go to to abolish quality public education anywhere in less than affluent areas.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I bet kids are pretty aware of the dangers when they lose a classmate.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Yup. Lots of folks without kids acting like they know.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

I was just trying to be funny.

I do agree there are many schools that make it very difficult to get a quality education but that is mostly based on the area and situation of most of the residents of that area. It's a vicious cycle. Our high school had one specific area that many from the city would move to in order to try and make a better life for their kids. I always looked at it as we were taking the same kids from "failing schools" and suddenly they weren't.

_________________
You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!