See N.J.S.A. 18A:39-1 and N.J.A.C. 6A:27. That’s why.
Motion to strike the onerous 6A:27-2.5. All in favor?
For reference:
6A:27-2.5 Responsibilities of the parents or legal guardians of nonpublic school students
(a) The parents or legal guardians annually shall submit Transportation Application to a completed Nonpublic School the nonpublic school administrator by March 10 preceding the school year for which transportation is being requested or at the time of registration in the nonpublic school if registration is after March 10.
An eligible student shall receive transportation or aid in lieu of transportation based upon the date education. the application is received by the resident district board of 1112
A new application shall be completed and submitted to the nonpublic school whenever the student has a change of address.
(b) Upon request of the resident district board of education, parents or legal guardians eligible to receive aid in lieu of transportation shall complete and sign a Nonpublic School Transportation Payment Voucher and shall submit it to the resident district board of education.
Private schools should be illegal. All they do is divide us.
I agree with this comment 100%.
Most of us here have participated at one time or other in a discussion of the fallacy of American meritocracy but a system in which children with no discernible merit other than their parent's wealth are given a leg up is despicable.
Most of us here have participated at one time or other in a discussion of the fallacy of American meritocracy but a system in which children with no discernible merit other than their parent's wealth are given a leg up is despicable.
i don't like private schools, and I hate paying for bussing. That said, I haven't walked in everyone's shoes. I have a good friend whose son is mixed race, and possibly the most intelligent young man I have ever met. His parents felt that the racism in our system would hold him back. I can't say that they are right or wrong. I've never faced it. Not every private school decision is about wealth.
I strongly disagree with the statement that private schools should be illegal. As I noted in an earlier post, parents should have the option of picking the best school for their children. I do not have any scholarly data on this, but it is simply my experience here in NJ. My three kids all went to public schools and got all the intellectual challenges they could handle and were more than ready for college. I also have many friends who chose the private school route and I think they did the right thing for their kids.
I used to coach the Recreation Dept. junior wrestling. At first, I wanted all the kids to go to the local HS and if this had happened, the HS would have had a great team. But many parents chose to send their kids to private high schools and some moved to neighboring school districts. At first, I was disappointed; but I came to learn a larger lesson. With former wrestlers in so many high schools, I learned to root for lots of high schools. My horizons broadened. It is the same for public vs private schools.
So, we need really good public schools and we need really good private schools. And we all need to find ways to help all of our kids to grow into the best adults they can be and this is not just done in the schools that they go to.
Yesterday I was going to reply, “Isn’t that like asking if everyone were healthy, what need would there be for hospitals?” But I thought the analogy through some more and decided that, unlike universal good health, uniformly good public schools are at least in theory an achievable goal.
There isn't much incentive for the wealthiest Americans, those with real influence and power, to work towards better public schools if their own children are exempted from all of the harms of poor public schools.
A few thoughts. I do not profess to be a scholarly academic on this subject...just my opinion. Also, I said that we need both really good public schools and really good private schools.
1. Most public schools in NJ are academically competitive with private schools. We spend the biggest part of our property taxes on schools and NJ public schools are amongst the best in the US. Anecdotally, I have some teacher friends who have taught at both public and private schools. They have told me that public high schools like Columbia and Montclair are every bit as academically capable and competitive as private schools.
2. Catholic schools have a very good reputation for academic quality. Consider St. Benedict's in Newark and St. Peter's in Jersey City, Seton Hall in West Orange, and until recently Marylawn in South Orange which have been beacons of high-quality education for generations.
3. Not all kid's personalities are built for success in public schools for a multitude of reasons. So smaller private schools may be the best option. Parents need to be able to make this decision.
4. It is no secret that parents have a big factor in their kid's success in school. I could have done better myself; but in spite of myself, my kids did fine.
5. Also, the community at large can play a big factor in school success. I like that towns like Maplewood, with participation from parents, give kids lots of opportunities for healthy growth in lots of areas.
6. So, I do agree that some pricy private schools do indeed give a child a leg up to get into Ivy League-type colleges. But good students at public schools can also achieve every bit as much as private school kids and they also have the experience of knowing and being friends with kids of all socio-economic backgrounds and academic abilities. This is a very valuable life lesson for all of us. In thinking back to my own college days at Rutgers, I now realize that the public high school I went to was actually in many ways more diverse than was the large university.
PS. If I made any typos, blame it on my public school education....just kidding.
In reference to how much of our taxes go towards our public schools, a friend moved from Westfield to SC. When the realtor told them what the taxes were on the house they ultimately decided to buy, my friend thought the number was per month. It was for the year. Within a short time of enrolling her sons in the local schools, they were shopping for alternatives. (I know this is a tangent, but I am a proud product of NJ’s public schools myself!)
3. Not all kid's personalities are built for success in public schools for a multitude of reasons. So smaller private schools may be the best option. Parents need to be able to make this decision.
If parents "need to be able to make this decision" why should the decision be limited by the parents incomes? Is this a decision that only rich parents need to make or is it a decision that every parent needs to make?
4. It is no secret that parents have a big factor in their kid's success in school. I could have done better myself; but in spite of myself, my kids did fine.
We have seen what has happened to schools in towns like East Ramapo where the children of school board members all attend private schools. It is hard not to conclude that the welfare of society is not harmed when decision makers do not have a stake in the public school system.
In reference to how much of our taxes go towards our public schools, a friend moved from Westfield to SC. When the realtor told them what the taxes were on the house they ultimately decided to buy, my friend thought the number was per month. It was for the year. Within a short time of enrolling her sons in the local schools, they were shopping for alternatives. (I know this is a tangent, but I am a proud product of NJ’s public schools myself!)
I have a friend that lives in SC. Their property taxes are insanely low but they send their kids to private school because the public schools are so bad. In the end, they are paying much higher "property taxes" than we are.
We are and always have been a public school family. I don't like the use of vouchers for private and parochial schools, because that tends to defund public schools.
However, i'm not going with the "private schools should be illegal" proposition (not that it would have a chance in hell), because sometimes a child who's having problems does benefit from a change of venue/personnel/companions/school size, and switching to a private school may be the only practical way to provide that.
In reference to how much of our taxes go towards our public schools, a friend moved from Westfield to SC. When the realtor told them what the taxes were on the house they ultimately decided to buy, my friend thought the number was per month. It was for the year. Within a short time of enrolling her sons in the local schools, they were shopping for alternatives. (I know this is a tangent, but I am a proud product of NJ’s public schools myself!)
I have a friend that lives in SC. Their property taxes are insanely low but they send their kids to private school because the public schools are so bad. In the end, they are paying much higher "property taxes" than we are.
This is, of course, exactly what I am talking about. Before desegregation, the South had relatively good public schools for white kids and private schools were uncommon. Then, the Federal Government forced the states to integrate public schools. Instead of proving good public schools for all children, white parents pulled their children from the public system en masse and transferred them to the newly created private "Academy" system.
These private schools allowed Southern states to continue a de facto system of segregation. According to the US census, 38% of the people living in South Carolina are non white minorities and yet non white minorities make up only 18% of the students attending private schools in that state.
If none of the Board of Education members send their kids to the public school and all send them to private schools, clearly there is a big problem in this town.
If none of the Board of Education members send their kids to the public school and all send them to private schools, clearly there is a big problem in this town.
What if the President, the US Senator*, the Governor, the Congressman and the State Senator all sent their kids to private school? How would that effect things?
If none of the Board of Education members send their kids to the public school and all send them to private schools, clearly there is a big problem in this town.
If none of the Board of Education members send their kids to the public school and all send them to private schools, clearly there is a big problem in this town.
I don't think that's the case here
My post (which I believe Robert was responding to) was referring to the East Rampao School district.
You can read more about that case at the following link.
It certainly is not the case in MAPSO but, as I noted in my post above, if you go a little farther up the political food chain, the number of decision makers who send their kids to public schools quickly dwindles to zero. Public education policy in the US is largely made by people who send their kids to private schools.
It’s a pretty stupid assumption to say private schools should be abolished. Different parents and different kids have different needs. I’ve been in private school, boarding school and public school. They all had different advantages and disadvantages. Even in top performing public schools, parents choose private for many reasons. In average public schools parents who can afford private choose public. And there are many parents who choose to have a bigger/nicer house in a school district which they have no intention of using because they have already made the decision to do private.
It’s a pretty stupid assumption to say private schools should be abolished. Different parents and different kids have different needs. I’ve been in private school, boarding school and public school. They all had different advantages and disadvantages. Even in top performing public schools, parents choose private for many reasons. In average public schools parents who can afford private choose public. And there are many parents who choose to have a bigger/nicer house in a school district which they have no intention of using because they have already made the decision to do private.
I don't think anyone is doubting the utility of private schools for the rich and powerful. It is the damage done to the public good by an elite that is entirely divested from the public school system that concerns me.
More of an assertion than an assumption, but I get the gist of what you are saying.
But different schools work better for different kids. Some kids would be better off in a public school that has many AP classes and allows kids to take them without regard to previous grades or having to test in. The same school might not be great for a kid that would be invisible in a classroom of over 30 kids but would thrive in a classroom of under 20 doing grade level work. And those kids could well be in the same family. So it’s important to have options rather than having families needing to make decisions about where to live based on schools.
I do agree that if you have school age children that do not attend public schools, you have no place on the BOE
4. It is no secret that parents have a big factor in their kid's success in school. I could have done better myself; but in spite of myself, my kids did fine.
We have seen what has happened to schools in towns like East Ramapo where the children of school board members all attend private schools. It is hard not to conclude that the welfare of society is not harmed when decision makers do not have a stake in the public school system.
That's one situation that I don't believe has ever or will happen here. There are always questions when someone runs for BOE who does not have children in the schools. That doesn't mean that every single BOE member has always had children in the schools. Some do not have school-aged children and some may have a child in private school for a specific individual reason. But I never recall a BOE member here who had all of their children in private school as a "preference". However I'm open to correction on this.
So it’s important to have options rather than having families needing to make decisions about where to live based on schools.
Important for all children or just important for the children of the wealthy? If this was really such an essential need, then rationing it on the basis of parents net worth would be/is immoral.
That's one situation that I don't believe has ever or will happen here. There are always questions when someone runs for BOE who does not have children in the schools. That doesn't mean that every single BOE member has always had children in the schools. Some do not have school-aged children and some may have a child in private school for a specific individual reason. But I never recall a BOE member here who had all of their children in private school as a "preference". However I'm open to correction on this.
My point is that this is happening in MAPSO, just not at the school board level. Every person voting on educational funding above the level of the State Assembly sent their kids to private schools. State Senator, US Congressman, US Senator, Governor, President.
Motion to strike the onerous 6A:27-2.5. All in favor?