Back to School


The other night was ‘back to school night’ at Maya’s middle school.  The evening started with speeches with the Principal, the Superintendent of the district, and the head of the PTA.  They talked about how lucky we are to have such wonderful kids, how our district is in the top 95% of the state in test scores, and how parent involvement and dedicated parents help to make this the case.  They talked about how raising healthy, happy children was about much more than these test scores, but still, yay test scores!  Then we went and sat in each of the classrooms that our child attends for 10 minutes each, and heard about what is expected from our kids, and what the year will hold for them.

I came out of the evening feeling very conflicted.  First of all, I am extremely grateful that we live where we do, where our child has had a top notch education from day one.  She started out at a private Montessori pre-school (partially subsidized by my Grandmother, VERY thankfully, because it was NOT cheap), then went on to a public Montessori Charter School (public = free, or at least, a LOT cheaper than the private school…now it was just the donations), and now she’s at a public Middle School.  But what a Middle School.   Seems like a great school, a great bunch of teachers, a great principal, great counselors, on and on and on.  But I feel conflicted, because I can’t help but think of the schools that don’t have these advantages.  Because while all schools in our glorious state may get similar funding from the government, we are fortunate enough to live in a fairly well off neighborhood, and our schools receive a LOT of money through our ‘Education Foundation’, which is just another way of saying, parents pay extra here, so their kids get the best.  What do they get?  A lot.  Art.  Music.  PE 5 days a week. Before and after school staff in the Library.  Counselors when we were scheduled to cut back because of budget issues.  Class size reduction beyond what the state funds.  Field trips to wonderful destinations.  After school tutoring for ANY CHILD THAT WANTS IT, free of charge, Monday through Thursday.  Provided by teachers who are being paid a pretty decent hourly rate to stay after and tutor the children, not high school students or interns. On campus security (though that’s not what they called it), patrolling the school from before school starts, until after school ends.  This is all at the middle school.  The elementary schools get even more.  All paid for by the Education Foundation.

How is the Foundation funded?  Parent donations.  The district requests $500 from each family, each year.  Of course, they don’t GET that much, but they get a lot.  That’s in addition to the many thousands of hours of volunteer time that the parents put in, and the extra time that the teachers put in above and beyond what they’re paid for.

So I should be thankful, right?  Thankful that my child is getting all the benefits of a top notch education, even though we live in a crowded little condo with my work office right in our bedroom.  And I am.  I feel very fortunate that we live here, that our schools are well funded and that Maya has the opportunity to get a wonderful education with teachers who are appreciated and all of the amenities.  But at the same time, I feel somewhat bitter that ALL of the children in our state, in our country, in our WORLD, don’t have the same opportunities.  But let’s keep it to our general geographic area, OK?  Go 15 miles one way, and the schools are perhaps even better than they are here.  15 miles in another direction, and it’s another story entirely.  There the parents don’t have the money to contribute much to an ‘education foundation’, nor do they have the time to volunteer and make sure that school dances and vision exams run smoothly, that there’s someone there to help with registration (a HUGE effort with 1300 kids), that there are parents to manage the magazine fundraiser and school photos.  Running a middle school really well takes a LOT of time and effort, and our district always manages to come up with the people and money that we need, while some of the other districts in the area suffer from cutbacks and funding shortages.

So, what about the kids in these districts?  Too bad for them?  Don’t they have the same right to a top notch education that Maya has?  Of course they do.  What it boils down to is that our schools are incorrectly funded.  Too many people aren’t willing to tax themselves for schools, because don’t see any benefit to parcel taxes or funding the schools well if they don’t have children in the district.  They don’t think long term, about how these same children will grow up to work at the grocery store, change their oil, work at their doctor’s office.  Be their lawyers and surgeons.  Sell their house for them, work at the furniture store.  Work at the drugstore, selling them medications.  Don’t they want people in these positions who are well educated, who not only know how to take a test, but also have common sense and know how to get by in this world?  People who know how to balance a checkbook, so they don’t write bad checks at your place of business?  Don’t they see the benefit of a society in which a High School education means something, and the kids who are lucky enough to go on to college don’t have to take remedial classes in writing and math? And what about the correlations between High School diplomas and reductions in crime? Seems like people in less affluent communities would like to be safer than they are.  And they do. But they just don’t feel like they can afford it. Some of them could afford more, if it weren’t much more.  Some of them truly cannot afford a penny more.  If our schools were funded on a Statewide level, then which neighborhood you lived in wouldn’t make as much of a difference in what level of education your child received.  If districts didn’t depend on fundraisers and educational foundations to help them provide basic services like counselors, P.E., and art, then all of our children could have a similar shot at a good education.

What we need is an overhaul of our funding system, so that kids educations aren’t tied so closely to property values and the amount their community is able to contribute to funding that education.

10 Comments

  • hellomelissa

    i’ve said for years that i would pay more taxes if it meant “better” schools. the problem is… what is the definition of better? it sounds like your school is really making some fantastic things happen, mostly with parent donations and volunteering.

    i both donate money and time to our school, although not as much of either since time and $ are a little tighter now that one is being homeschooled.

    my problem is NOT that others don’t do the same. my problem is what my time and money HELPS. at this point, the only thing the darn school can see is end-of-grade testing. test scores. making sure all kids pass the test. making sure the curriculum is structured to make kids pass the test. make all volunteers help kids that might not pass the test. take funds for computer programs to help kids pass the test.

    did i make my point? i am so sick of the testing, the anxiety, and the test scores that could scream. and if putting more money into schools means more of THIS, than i am against it!

    i’m all for accountability, school safety, higher teacher wages, and more teacher training, but isn’t there a better way to do it than testing and not truly teaching?

    apologies for the rant. QUALITY education for all is a sore spot for me right now! can you tell?

  • joan

    My children attend public school. My daughter is in 6th and my son is in 10th. My daughter’s middle school is 2 years old. My son’s high school is only 1 year old. It’s the first high school built since 1983 despite a tremendous population growth in our district. He plays football and all their stuff is all new and shiny. We see other schools where I know there is not the parental involvement or money available. The teams uniforms are ragged. The cheerleaders don’t even have traditional uniforms but rather matching t-shirts and shorts. That’s sports. I can’t imagine what it is like within the classroom.

  • J

    Melissa, I’m with you hon. This focus on testing is exhausting and horrible, a waste of good teachers’ time and good students’ minds. It drives me crazy. Luckily, it appears that my daughter’s school loves the results we get, but doesn’t put TOO much stress on the tests. Other than teaching the subjects that will be there. I don’t know if I scratched a little deeper, if I would find problems. But from what I can see, it’s OK.

    Joan, this is just what I’m talking about. Where’s the justice in a situation like that? There isn’t any.

  • Autumn's Mom

    We live less than an hour away and our schools are vastly different from yours. We are at the opposite end of the spectrum where mis-management has squandered our funds and our high school is a step away from losing their accreditation. Our schools are very old. We don’t have enough books and sometimes teachers. Their salaries are not competitive with other districts. Our children aren’t offered much other than the basics. That being said, my kids enjoy school. For now we’d rather live in this small community where parents are involved and look out for each other. I think it’s wonderful that there is an education foundation where you are…I wish we had one here.

  • Ted

    It’s the level of inequality that people want to maintain and it goes by the code word “Competitive advantage.” Yeah, we live in an area that has a great school system, but I’ve heard parents (and you know some of them) that think even with all the extras that the Walnut Creek School District has, it’s not enough, and they look for that extra “something” that will give their kid an edge. That’s where places like Sylvan Learning Center, private tutors, test prep courses and the like come into play. If you tally up all the “extras” parents are willing to pay for so their kids get what they consider a “great” education, and then look at what we’d pay in taxes to get roughly the same outcome for all students in California, it would be a lot cheaper. But like I said, it’s so much about dollars and cents as it is about maintaining inequality.

  • MRMacrum

    I attended 12 different schools before I graduated High School. I took classes in different states and at least one other country. The quality was all over the map. The one constant that kept me mostly on track were my parents. Their interest and insistence gave me the foundation to actually come out of school with something other than a degree.

    Funding is only part of the problem. Money cannot fix stupid. That needs to be worked on at home.

  • J

    MRMacrum, I agree that money cannot fix stupid. Look at the CA legislators, and their LAME attempt at passing a budget, borrowing from next year. Ugh.

    Anyway, Money isn’t the full answer, but such blatant disparity in funding is part of the problem.

    Ted, sadly, I think you’re right. If people overall truly believed that parity in our schools was important, they would find a way to make it happen. But they don’t.

  • Nance

    hellomelissa, i heartily agree with you as a career teacher of 28 years. we are fettered and terrorized by the specter of No Child Left Behind, as are the children we teach. the tests that you lament are the high-stakes tests that your child must pass and that we are measured by. those tests determine our state and national ranking and, ultimately, our federal funding. the data they generate drive every single thing we do, including writing curriculum, which now is designed solely to PASS THOSE TESTS. until No Child Left Behind (which is mandated BUT NOT FULLY FUNDED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT) is completely retooled or, better yet, abandoned, all our schools are driven by high-stakes testing alone.
    no parent and no educator want to see “a child left behind”, but the name of this program is misleading, like the so-called “Patriot Act.” the No Child Left Behind Act leaves plenty of children behind when it punishes low-performing schools by pulling their funding when they need it most. the list is endless. just as legislators alone cannot and should not dictate education, no one should be so naive as to think that by passing sweeping laws that we can also regulate parenting.

  • Rob

    This was a great post! We’re facing the same challenges here in Minnesota. The legislature is trying to craft a more equitable framework for school funding, but it hasn’t been easy, and meanwhile the system is still horribly broken.