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fwiw, for brevity: it's not good. I have geriatric parents on the island ( my mother would kill me if she heard me say that lol), so I'm very clued in to that issue right now. It has and continues to be my #1 challenge going forward this decade. They've seen peers move away to FL out of medical necessity. They are relatively lucky they haven't met a medical show stopper yet, but they have lost specialists and have had to deal with scrambling to find care in the past 5 or so years. The deficit is real. There's plenty of literature online regarding the medical diaspora if you're so inclined. Anecdotally, both relocations and age-out retirements of the doctors themselves are true from the perspective of my family's experience in the SJU metro. I shudder to think what kind of healthcare deficit those who live outside the metro are putting up with.
My DIL is from Puerto Rico and she and my son and their two kids have been back there for almost a year. They are taking a few years off until their oldest child starts school. My son retired from the Army. He doesn’t speak Spanish.
We fear they are too content there, and won’t come back to the mainland. Her grandparents, parents and other family all live there very comfortably. They stay out of politics and are used to overlooking the shortcomings. The medical care is fine. My son swims off their front yard to spear fish or lobster for dinner. It’s hard to leave paradise, I think.
My granddaughter goes to preschool a few days a week and it costs about $300. a month. On the other hand, the public schools are not considered good, so a typical parochial school is about $12k.
It cost them a lot to move there. For example, they had to pay $8000. tax to get their car to the island. Apparently, if they sell the car when they leave, they can make the money back. If you move there and take your stuff, they’ll tax it. If you move there without stuff, it’s either impossible, frustrating or expensive to get new stuff.
My granddaughter goes to preschool a few days a week and it costs about $300. a month. On the other hand, the public schools are not considered good, so a typical parochial school is about $12k.
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That's an understatement. I didn't know how bad the public schools in Puerto Rico are until I came to the U.S. and went to school for a few years and took my son to the U.S. schools years later. We had 2 school counselors in my H.S. in Puerto Rico which I never spoke to about my grades or career. All I remember was they were attractive and dressed really nice especially on Fridays (and especially on payday) and left early by noon, I guess for happy hour and dancing. The other time I saw them for more then 20 minutes was when the school cafeteria were serving fried chicken for lunch and they came and skip the long line to eat and left. That was my only interaction with my H.S. school counselors in P.R., which was NONE.
My son in the U.S saw his school counselor twice a semester and that started in 7th grade. So you can compare the 2 systems. In my H.S. in Puerto Rico you had the principal and vice principal from the 2 main parties in the island and at each other throats since all the school promotions are done locally and which political party you belong to . Most government jobs in Puerto Rico are political. Is not your skills or your work ethic that is the most important thing in the job but what political party you belong to and which one you give allegiance to and who you know. I remember the vice principal going to all the classrooms urging the students to boycott the principal and get out of class and protest in front of the school until they replaced him because she couldn't work with him and didn't like his ideas for the school and wanted his job. Half of the school did (I didn't, I wasn't taking sides and the vice principal was way out of line) and it was all over the news. You had local news channels covering the drama. This was in 1987, I was a sophomore. At the end of weeks of drama, both principals were taken out and put in different schools. It's really hard, nearly impossible to fire a public school teacher or a school administrator. They just shuffle them around in the system. I can write a book about my life in Puerto Rico especially in public schools. It's some drama.
Do yourself a favor and your family, put your kids in private schools, stay away from the public unless it's the ONLY option. I wouldn't put my own kids and or grand kids, I tell you that much.
Last edited by SanJuanStar; 09-10-2022 at 01:03 PM..
That's an understatement. I didn't know how bad the public schools in Puerto Rico are until I came to the U.S. and went to school for a few years and took my son to the U.S. schools years later. We had 2 school counselors in my H.S. in Puerto Rico which I never spoke to about my grades or career. All I remember was they were attractive and dressed really nice especially on Fridays (and especially on payday) and left early by noon, I guess for happy hour and dancing. The other time I saw them for more then 20 minutes was when the school cafeteria were serving fried chicken for lunch and they came and skip the long line to eat and left. That was my only interaction with my H.S. school counselors in P.R., which was NONE.
Do yourself a favor and your family, put your kids in private schools, stay away from the public unless it's the ONLY option. I wouldn't put my own kids and or grand kids, I tell you that much.
The school I attended in PR, while not perfect, wasn't too bad. I have many fond memories of my HS years, far too many to mention. Sure, there were a few non-stellar teachers. But the vast majority were good and executed their jobs with skillful devotion.
My DIL and her siblings were able to go to an international school, so they all had a great school experience, with lots of extra curricular activities.
My DILs swim team competed internationally. They are flawlessly bilingual. Her father was in the Army Corps of Engineers, so she had a lot of advantages. Her family can and will pay for private schools, but my son is a good old Midwest boy and he had great free schools. I hope they come back, but it’s not up to me.
The school I attended in PR, while not perfect, wasn't too bad. I have many fond memories of my HS years, far too many to mention. Sure, there were a few non-stellar teachers. But the vast majority were good and executed their jobs with skillful devotion.
Nothing in life is perfect but it was a very bad and dysfunctional system. Most of the work had to be copied from the black board because We didn't have books and the very little books We had were outdated and missing pages. It wasn't for a lack of money, it was mismanagement and corruption and lack of pride and it started from the top down. You can put the best people in a bad system and they will fail.
I have fond memories of people but not the system. Overall is mediocre just like the public services in other departments. That's why Puerto Ricans that know better and have the means pay extra for private schools. They know better. The ones without resources are stuck in the system. You bring that same system here and it would be rejected. Again, is not for the lack of money, they get plenty and more than private schools so it's a lot deeper than that. All I'm saying is if I have a choice I wouldn't send anybody to that system knowing that there are better systems unless they have no choice.
I mean, when you go to a car mechanic, you want a competent one that does the job or the one you like and get along with? After all, it's your car. In this case it's their future and lining up for better options in this competitive market.
Nothing in life is perfect but it was a very bad and dysfunctional system. Most of the work had to be copied from the black board because We didn't have books and the very little books We had were outdated and missing pages. It wasn't for a lack of money, it was mismanagement and corruption and lack of pride and it started from the top down. You can put the best people in a bad system and they will fail.
I have fond memories of people but not the system. Overall is mediocre just like the public services in other departments. That's why Puerto Ricans that know better and have the means pay extra for private schools. They know better. The ones without resources are stuck in the system. You bring that same system here and it would be rejected. Again, is not for the lack of money, they get plenty and more than private schools so it's a lot deeper than that. All I'm saying is if I have a choice I wouldn't send anybody to that system knowing that there are better systems unless they have no choice.
I mean, when you go to a car mechanic, you want a competent one that does the job or the one you like and get along with? After all, it's your car. In this case it's their future and lining up for better options in this competitive market.
The law of entropy comes to mind. Things digress from a higher state to a lower state with the progression of time. It's unavoidable.
You were in PR schools in the latter 80's. I was in PR schools during the latter 70's. As stated, most of my Teachers were skillfully devoted to their duties as Teachers. In hindsight, I can honestly say they truly wanted to make an impact and a positive change in the lives of their students. Most of my teachers fomented a culture of critical thinking, por la mejoria del pais. They instilled in us a sense of pride in our roots, yet simultaneously reminding us of our US Citizenship. It gave us youngsters cause for pause and reason. My HS Teachers gave us cause to critically think about our future. That's how I remember it.
I am eternally grateful to the many forward-thinking Teachers who taught me how to think ahead and beyond of my young days. Ellas/Ellos Sigúen siendo mis campeon@s.
The law of entropy comes to mind. Things digress from a higher state to a lower state with the progression of time. It's unavoidable.
You were in PR schools in the latter 80's. I was in PR schools during the latter 70's. As stated, most of my Teachers were skillfully devoted to their duties as Teachers. In hindsight, I can honestly say they truly wanted to make an impact and a positive change in the lives of their students. Most of my teachers fomented a culture of critical thinking, por la mejoria del pais. They instilled in us a sense of pride in our roots, yet simultaneously reminding us of our US Citizenship. It gave us youngsters cause for pause and reason. My HS Teachers gave us cause to critically think about our future. That's how I remember it.
I am eternally grateful to the many forward-thinking Teachers who taught me how to think ahead and beyond of my young days. Ellas/Ellos Sigúen siendo mis campeon@s.
Critical thinking in P.R. public schools? you mean debate the different points and make the students think and challenge power and the status quo? Nope, I didn't see it and it wasn't part of the public education in the public schools. Our teachers weren't that prepared. There job was to push the Department of Education curriculum and push them out like a factory line, once they passed them, it wasn't their problem. All you have to do is look at the horrible scores and how unprepared the public schools students were when they arrived in college. The private school students have by far better scores and are more prepared when they arrived to college. That's because the private schools in P.R. focuses on a good education system and proper English and prepares all their students to enter college and it's a system that starts before the 7th grade.
Most of my senior class couldn't speak, write or read proper English or carry a basic job interview for a fast food job in English but the system passed them all and I watched them all get bad grades and struggle in college because it was at another league that the public schools didn't prepared them.
Most of the books in college in P.R. are in English at a college level. If you can't dominate basic English as a 2nd language in public schools you are going to be lost in college. It's like the opposite, if an American kid can't dominate basic Spanish as a second language in H.S., they will be lost when they get to college and most of the books are in advanced Spanish.
Again, I have fond memories of people and what We did together because that time in P.R. is gone forever but I'm not going to lie or sugar coat it, the system was horrible and is still is.
When I tell you that I never saw my school counselor in my time in H.S. to go over my grades, my needs and my plans to go to college and what I needed to do and what help is available to me , you know the whole system is b.s. I saw the them twice a week walking in and out the main office. They existed but they didn't care about their jobs because the system allowed it. They were for a government check, plenty of paid holidays, weekends off, and 2 months paid vacation every year. Just like many teachers in public schools when they join. Your regular teachers aren't going to do it. They have 45 students per class. Their plate is full. Thankfully I had a plan and it was the U.S. Armed Forces and use the GI Bill and get the hell out of there.
You have good teachers in a bad system and you have bad teachers in a bad system that it's impossible to fire them. This is when the teacher's union are in bed with the politics in the island. It's a mess but then again, anything the P.R. government touches and controls is a mess. I have never met a government department in P.R. competent or run well. I have never seen it and I dealt with a lot of them.
Last edited by SanJuanStar; 09-11-2022 at 10:30 PM..
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