Fareed Zakaria on California's priorities (San Jose, Sacramento: lawyer, house, top schools)

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by TimC2462

Good points so far everyone.

I personally know of a public school teacher who is homeschooling her children. Yikes, what does that tell you?

How about the ones that send their kids to private school. There are five of those kids in my 8th graders class at the Catholic School she attends.

[sacramento916]

The Public Schools are usually only as good as the students and culture that surrounds the school. When you have a cultural mindset that doesn't value education, discipline or intellectualism, you will get bad schools no matter how much money you pump in them.

The reason why public schools in wealthy areas have very high performance scores is because the students come from stable families who place a lot of emphasis on education and intellectualism.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

The reason why public schools in wealthy areas have very high performance scores is because the students come from stable families who place a lot of emphasis on education and intellectualism.

More true in NorCal than SoCal.

The "cultural mindset that doesn't value education, discipline or intellectualism" is very common in SoCal's wealthy neighborhoods and towns. For example Newport Beach closing down libraries because "nobody reads". You'd never have something like that in similarly wealthy Marin or Peninsula towns.

Schools in wealthy neighborhoods tend to be safer (unless those schools are part of huge dysfunctional mega-sized school districts) but not always more oriented towards learning.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by sacramento916

The Public Schools are usually only as good as the students and culture that surrounds the school. When you have a cultural mindset that doesn't value education, discipline or intellectualism, you will get bad schools no matter how much money you pump in them.

The reason why public schools in wealthy areas have very high performance scores is because the students come from stable families who place a lot of emphasis on education and intellectualism.

The book Freakonomics goes into this idea in some detail. It exposes a variety of data the fundamentally concludes that the single most important factor predicting the academic performance of children is who their parents are. That matters more than school districts, teachers, spending per student, etc.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Cupertino still has excellent schools...

We lived in the school district for Monta Vista High School Monta Vista High School: Home Page in Cupertino - one of the best public schools in the state, or so they say.

All through elementary & middle school, our kids attended the private Harker School The Harker School instead of public schools, and we were considering switching to public school for high school, even though Harker is also among the very best of private schools.

So... I met with the principal & various members of the administration & faculty (individually over several weeks), basically to interview them to figure out if that school would be a good fit for our child.

I asked each of them in essence "What is your secret? You're among the best, and at the same time, the scores of students at high schools 12 to 15 miles east of here in San Jose are, well, bad."

Each of them independently said basically the same thing:

"The difference is the families & the emphasis they place on education:

• Our Monta Vista student body is largely 1st generation Americans -- the parents emigrated from places such as China & Taiwan & India & Singapore & Germany.
• The parents of our students are well educated - frequently both have PhDs in EE from prestigious universities in China or India etc
• Frequently, the grandparents live in the house, too
• English is not the primary language spoken at home.

And the poorly performing high schools across the valley?

• Their student body is largely 1st generation Americans -- the parents emigrated from places such as Mexico, Guatemala & Honduras.
• The parents of their students are not well educated.
• Frequently, the grandparents live in the house, too.
• English is not the primary language spoken at home.

"The parents of our student body demand excellence from their children. We even give it a name: HYPS Syndrome: If their child is not admitted to Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Stanford, the parent's view their children as failures and their performance as an insult against their ancestors.

"In contrast, across the valley, the parent's view of education is, well, less ambitious. If their child actually graduates from high school, they view it as success -- the first of their line to graduate."

[nullgeo]

In other words: Elites breed elites.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by TimC2462

... All that aside, what's your take on the fact a that we spend twice as much on prisons than public education alone? ...

Here's my take on this fact. Schools are funded in part by property taxes; to increase property taxes requires a vote of millions of people across the state (at the school district level).

Prison guards are funded by the general fund, and so all that is required is for the prison guard union successfully to negotiate with a few & to have it ratified by a handful in Sacramento.

The real travesty is the undue influence prison guard unions have. Under certain circumstances, prison guards can retire at age 45 with 90% of their compensation for life (with COLA, of course), and double-dip by taking other lucrative state jobs. While it is rare, there are even triple-dippers out there.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

In other words: Elites breed elites.

I don't think this has anything to do with breeding. What do you mean by elite? I think educated parents tend to value education, and self-select areas with good schools. Those schools naturally perform well. But I wouldn't call these people elite. These are the kind of people I live and work with and there is nothing elite about them.

The majority of super-wealthy people probably send their kids to private school, no matter where they live.

[yeahthatguy]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I don't think this has anything to do with breeding. What do you mean by elite? I think educated parents tend to value education, and self-select areas with good schools. Those schools naturally perform well. But I wouldn't call these people elite. These are the kind of people I live and work with and there is nothing elite about them.

The majority of super-wealthy people probably send their kids to private school, no matter where they live.

+1 on your response. ...correlation does not equal causation .. critical thinking skills was a key lesson many adults seem to have missed out in school... Much to their detriment in understanding the world around them .. It's scary that people with such mindsets have equal votes in terms of policy.. All to often, given their inability to understand things get con'd into supporting things that actually hurt them .. In many ways this demonstrates the importance of education and continued education.. Something far more valuable than money.. for a fool and their money are soon parted anyway.

Elite.. LOL, i refuse to acknowledge anyone as elite.. I don't care how rich you are or who the hell you are .. You're a human being just like everyone else.

[scottfreez]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

The book Freakonomics goes into this idea in some detail. It exposes a variety of data the fundamentally concludes that the single most important factor predicting the academic performance of children is who their parents are. That matters more than school districts, teachers, spending per student, etc.

Can you elaborate? "Who" the parents are, or what the parents do for a living, or what the parents do wrt the child's education...?