School District

[buck12]

local woman put her kids in school at her dads home, they watched her & arrested her and attempted to send her to prison for 7 years was what prosecutor wanted. the judge gave her 6 months in jail and 3 years probation all for enrolling her kids in a different school district that she didnt live in! ya talk about crooked legal system when you can be sent to jail for 7 years for attempting to get a better school for your kids!?

Mark

There should be some form of punishment. Prison sounds harsh. I get angry because I pay higher taxes in the school district I live in and others live in the country and lie/cheat to send their kids to the same school. If they want their children in a school system they should be willing to pay same tax rate and inflated housing costs of the better school district.

 

[Tenn_Blue]

A couple years ago, my wife and I took a long look at her employment (she would have 10 more years work before she was eligable for full retirement). Our son was leaving elementary school and heading to middle school, (lots of social issues in Florida where we lived at the time). We were also planning to move to Tennessee, and wanted to travel some (as a family). We decided to home school our son.
My wife quite her job and became a stay at home mom/teacher. We save money on gas (her driving to work), after school care (not needed anymore), clothing (work clothes for her and school clothes/uniforms for the son). The wife wanted to stay home and bea housewife (her choice) - she now had more time to cook good meals for us (save money from eating out all the time), take care of the house (don't have to pay someone else to do it), and spends more time wih our son. In the long run, we didn't miss her income - because it was getting spent on all the things we were able to eliminate by home schooling.

And we can travel whenever we want (I am retired now as well), because the son "brings his school with us". SOmething to consider...

 

[Steve_Miller]

Hey guys,

We are in a bit of a tough decision. Looking for advice and direction.

We currently live out in the middle of nowhere and LOVE it!! The problem is this...
My wife works 40 hours and I work upwards of 60-80 hours some weeks. We have 2 children that go to a babysitter 2 blocks from my wifes work. The lady who watches the kids gives us the best rate around and is really good with the kids and we know she can be trusted with them. If they went to this school the bus would drop them off at babysitter house.
Anyway the oldest will soon be ready for kindergarten. We are gone so much of the time and would not have a chance of being home in the afternoon if kids went to school in the district that we live in. Both of us have very iregular schedules. The cutoff for wifes work district is less than 2 miles over from our house. I have called the other school and they want over 7K per year per kid for out of district tuition. Is there any way for us to send kids there without paying these fees?? We dont have the money to send them at that rate. Our original plan was to build a house in that district but with the economy--we cant do it. What happens if nobody is home when bus tries to drop them off?? Can they really just leave a 5 year old girl in the middle of nowhere by themselves?? We REALLY dont know what to do... Looking for suggestions .

It's probably not relavent as I'm from Nova Scotia, Canada but here goes. When I married my wife (insta family as I called it) she moved from another county (just across the river) and we didn't want to change the kids from one school to another so we applied to the school board to request permission to allow them to stay in the same school. My understanding is that they will look at the situation and if they approve with what you wanted to do they would transfer the funding cost per child from one board to the other somehow (a portion of our taxes would be transferred to the other district) and it was up to you to land/retrieve the child from the school yard. Now this was fifteen years ago, but I hope it may help your case.

Steve

 

[dave1949]

A couple years ago, my wife and I took a long look at her employment ..............

Something to consider...

That's a calculation that is worth doing. A typical two income family incurs lots of expense. Often two reliable autos required, childcare, work attire, higher food costs perhaps, etc. Plus, it's fair to calculate one spouse's income tax burden at your highest marginal tax rates. What value you place on intangibles such as quality of life, a less stressed family, improved odds of raising your children well, etc. also figure in.

If you figure out what one of you is working for per hour, it can be an eye opener and helps in making some decisions. Other things you need to think about if one spouse is going to quit working; which has the best chance of re-entering the work force, which has the better long-term career, earnings, and retirement potential?

Whether you act on this is of course a personal choice, but a child raising couple ought to know or have a fair idea of the numbers.

Dave.

 

[smstonypoint]

That's a calculation that is worth doing. A typical two income family incurs lots of expense.

<snip>
Dave.

I agree. Another item that might enter into the calculation is health insurance coverage provided by the employer(s).

Steve

 

[dave1949]

I agree. Another item that might enter into the calculation is health insurance coverage provided by the employer(s).

Steve

Yes, another good piece of data.
Dave.

 

[KB9UDE]

You guys just hit one of the major problems on the head! Health Insurance. We could get by without my wifes income because of expenses of child care, gas, etc... But my wifes employer gives an awesome rate for health ins.

 

[orezok]

From reading the posts, it seems that many of your school districts tax on a local basis. In California, schools are funded by the state from general revenues i.e. all tax basis. The district is funded based upon ADA (average daily attendance) which varies year to year. Currently I think it is about $5,500 per student per year. There are adjustments which result in some districts being "richer" than others.

This results in some interesting situations. The more students a district has, the more money they receive from the state. This puts districts in a sort of competition to attract students rather than reject students. The "last dollars" allow for the niceties such as arts and enrichment programs. Many times this is accomplished by offering special programs such as magnet schools or just higher performing schools in general. Currently we offer programs such as Pre-law, Pre-med, Culinary arts, Agriculture, Hospitality Industry, Computer science and International Baccalaureate.

Our school board who has been very progressive as we are an open district and will accept students from anywhere. The only requirement is that space be available at a particular school. Each school has a boundary and if you live in that boundary you do have priority. If you live in the boundary and exceed the minimum distance from the school your child will be bussed. If you live outside the boundary transportation is the responsibility of the parent.

We are fortunate to have an exceptional administration which has resulted in our being one of the highest scoring districts in both the county and state. Our current ADA is about 30,000.

Our district encompasses seven small to moderate size cities plus county areas. About a third of our schools are in areas where over 90% of the students falling below the poverty level and predominately Hispanic and migratory to one of the richest cities in California.

Everybody criticizes California, but sometime they get it right.

By the way, California is 49th in school funding!

 

[phiferpharm]

I presently serve as a director for Magnet schools in my county ( my workweek home in Miami, not Fort McCoy), where we are just finishing processing 45.000+ applications for Magnet schools. We do it at a district level and use random selection to insure everybody gets the same chance for the seats available. Statistics prove the magnet schools do produce a better end result in terms of grades and parental satisfaction.

Is it all due to the schools being inherently better? Having better faculty? In better neighborhoods? Absolutely not. One of the biggest factors is that the parents are much more involved in the schools. Both the students and the parents are required to apply, sign contracts to maintain standards, and in general be partners in their child's education.

Frankly, you can't just be a drive-by parent and expect the kids will are going to do well. Sadly, a large percentage of parents figure it's the school's job to raise their kids in too many cases.

I think John is trying to make it work, so I can only wish him luck in making the best choice for his little one's future.

 

[KB9UDE]

I think John is trying to make it work, so I can only wish him luck in making the best choice for his little one's future.

Thank you for the words of encouragement...We are working on a plan to make the best of the situation for our kids.