They may not be able to pass certification exams, but government teachers aren’t stupid. They know government schools stink, at least urban ones, so they send their kids to private schools. But they don’t want you to have similar choices. If you want an abortion, however, that’s a different story.
Here’s an interesting article in the Arizona Republic that’s supposed to be “news”, but I think it’s common knowledge:
Teachers in urban public schools send their own children to private schools at nearly double the national rate of private-school attendance, according to a new study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, D.C.Nationwide, 12.2 percent of all families in urban, rural and suburban settings send their children to private schools. But 21.5 percent of urban public-school teachers send their children to private schools.
Now who didn’t know that? Raise your hands. I’ll bet if I conducted a study of teachers’ unions, I’d find a greater percentage of teachers who wouldn’t let their children be caught dead in government schools.
Now get this:
The study’s authors came to several conclusions why urban public-school teachers send their children to private schools at a higher rate, including the fact that teachers are generally conservative and have long been discerning connoisseurs of education. [My emphasis]
Get it? We’re supposed to believe such teachers are conservative. Notice that “conservative” in this context is a positive quality. Meanwhile your kids are being treated to “liberal” cucumbers and food-flavored condoms. OK.
Casey Lartigue, a former education policy analyst at the Cato Institute, surveyed members of the D.C. Council to find out how many sent their kids to private schools. If you guessed that politicians who oppose school choice opt for private schools, you’re correct.
The Heritage Foundation conducted a study of members of Congress looking for the same information. Although we can intuit the results, it’s necessary to measure these things. Guess what they found?
In 2003, The Heritage Foundation conducted an anonymous survey of Members of Congress to determine how many practice private school choice. The results of the survey show that private school choice continues to be an important option for these elected leaders. (See Table 2.) It also remains a popular option for Members who serve on committees with jurisdiction over education legislation as well as those who represent minority populations.
President Bush’s D.C. voucher plan was finally passed, but Democrats in Congress fought it as if their lives depended on it. If you’ve got teachers’ unions (contributing millions to Democratic candidates) breathing down your neck, your political life might depend on it.
Class dismissed!
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‘Nationwide, 12.2 percent of all families in urban, rural and suburban settings send their children to private schools. But 21.5 percent of urban public-school teachers send their children to private schools.’
Isn’t this a sample problem? If schools in the country and suburbs are better, then we would expect people in the city to send their kids to private school more than others. Why not compare urban teachers to urban people? Perhaps even urban people of similar income.
actus- I may have accidentally deleted one of your comments. You may re-submit.
actus has a good point. I don’t like the way that stat is quoted. In NYC, lots of people send their kids to private schools (I live very close to a Catholic elementary/middle school – it’s run by my parish church). Of course, the rich people also seem to have the connections to get their kids into the “good” public schools here…perhaps the teachers do, too. I would like to know how many teachers’ kids go to neighborhood public schools, and how many go to magnet schools, charter schools, private schools, etc.
In any case, we hope to homeschool our children. At worst, I’ll send them to Catholic school, but I don’t think their academic program here is up to snuff.
Like I’ve always said, if I wanted my future kids to learn how to put a condom on a banana I would send them to public school. I didn’t know what sex was until a bunch of liberals came to my school and showed a movie of what it was, IN THE 5TH GRADE!!!!!!
The True King Carlos
I wonder how the gov’t school parents would feel if all kids in sex-ed classes saw actual abortions. I mean, like the brain being sucked out of a tiny head in a partial birth abortion, and the gruesome tiny hands.
The pictures are horrible. But most pro-abortion folks censor them, hiding the truth.
Dems pushing this might save their electoral votes among blacks; but I guess that more blacks will vote Rep first — to get better education results for their own kids.
While the numbers may be skewed, they do point in the right direction, in that a higher percentage of teachers do send their children to private schools than the public at large. When I was doing my student teaching (in a not so bad district in central PA), I was surprised to find how many of the full time staff and faculty sent their kids to private schools.
Philadelphia has this issue in spades. Until very recently, the school board required that all teachers live in the city. They also paid the teachers below average wages (compared to other districts in the area), and by forcing them to live in city limits, they also ensured that these folks were a) stuck with a high cost of living, b) forced to pay the city wage tax c) forced to pay some of the nations highest insurance (auto and home ownwers).
Any teacher who was lucky enough to have a well-heeled spouse had their children in the local Catholic or Quaker schools; others either kept their kids in the local schools, or they left the city altogether so that they could afford a better home in the suburbs or other metros. This of course meant that many of the teachers left in the system were either a) sub-par (the scores on eval tests are frightening in Philly) or b) a bit disconected with the day to day realities of local economics or c) have no children left in the system.
Now that teachers are allowed to live outside the city, there is a better chance of getting good teachers who want to make a difference, but for whatever reason, don’t want to live in the city (it isn’t for everyone!).
What’s with all the teacher bashing lately? There are some folks shouldn’t be teaching anyone’s children but there are also teachers who still care, like my mother (who passed her certifications for the state of Texas and isn’t stupid, by the way) and has taught in both the inner city and the suburbs in the Houston area. I was educated in the Houston public schools, graduated, and obtained a bachelors and MBA so I guess I didn’t turn out all that bad either.
I’m quite sure my mother doesn’t advocate condoms and cucumbers either because of her beliefs and how I was raised.
It’s grossly unfair to lump an entire profession into one pot.
She teaches for the people who don’t have an OPTION to send their kids to private schools, such as the young lady she recently told me about who lives with her grandmother and 4 other siblings, whose mom is dead and dad is in prison.
And often they are at the mercy of administrators who dictate a lot of what is taught and who want teachers to cut back on getting kids to learn and concentrate on passing standardized tests.
Rash generalizations about an entire group of people aren’t helpful; I hope you don’t think back about every teacher you’ve had and think they were idiots as well.
Many teachers around here take their kids to the school where they work. They have the choice to bring their kid with them to their school district or to let them stay in the district where they live.
Most of the teachers that I know bring their kids with them to their district. However, I live and teach in districts where the kids can afford private music lessons. Parents pay outrageously high mortgages in order to get their kids into these public schools.
The idea that ‘country’ schools are better than urban schools is not necessarily true. There are many small schools that are just as poor as anything in the city and it’s just as hard to get good teachers there.
My husband is a conservative teacher, and yes, we’ve made the decision that our future kid will not be attending public schools. Home schooling is a thought for the younger years, but private school sure has a nice ring to it for when the child is older. We’ve decided that public schools are too crowded, the kids too immoral and the teachers too tied up by rules and regulations to do anything about it.
Tiffany, Like I’ve said recently on this blog, an English teacher once tried to tell me that homosexuality wasn’t addressed in the Bible. Was that on the course curriculum? Ask your mother what kind of history and social studies are being taught in those classrooms and what kind of people are teaching those classes. You think they aren’t pushing their agenda? Teachers are people, too.
In answer to Tiffany’s wondering why teachers are being tarred with the same brush when some of them are obviously good and conscientious people. Let me give a three letter answer. NEA.
‘I wonder how the gov’t school parents would feel if all kids in sex-ed classes saw actual abortions.’
Probably the same as if every kid saw videos of slaughterhouses before they sent them to the cafeteria.
Teachers send their kids to private schools. So what? Most are wealthy, and can afford to do so. At private schools, kids get extra attention, and generally a better education. It all comes at a price. Im sure if a lot parents were in the financial position to send their kids to private school, they would.
Since most people due to personal choices or forced circumstances cannot send their kids to private schools, they should fight like !@#% get a nation-wide school voucher program enacted. That’s a pro-choice program that we can use!
Mariachi,
Teachers are wealthy?
ROTFL.
Teachers are wealthy, Mariachi? They make less money than many professional occupations, in fact, many leave the profession because they can’t make a living at it. Teacher’s unions haven’t done all that well for teachers. Bureaucrats in education departments drain academic dollars and are parasitic to education. Curriculum coordinators that infuse radical PC agendas draw down enviable salaries while dumbing down our educational process. The NEA has been horrible for our country.
LaShawn, I prayed for you when you took hiatus to examine how you could serve God and country with your blog. This article is a great example of how He answered my prayers. Been glad everyday you’ve been back. Keep up the good work.
Im trying to become one. The starting salaries alone are plenty for a comfortable life. Holidays are good, and the pay has much room to increase over time. Its certainly not a ‘dead end’ job, as it were. Of course, generally it depends WHERE you teach. Colleges and Universities pay far better, but its obviously a higher level of teaching needed.
Odd, I remember in school being forced to watch a video on slaughterhouses… to learn how cruel the meat industry was…
I’m a teacher in the only public high school in Indiana to be recognized as a “No Child Left Behind” school. It’s in a college town (Purdue) and most of the students are very high achieving. I had over 70% of the parents show up for the open house. Before I came to teach here, I taught in a rural school. I had 2% of the parents show up for open house.
Teachers are important. No doubt about it. But, without the supportive parents, we’re fighting a losing battle. No amount of money for newer computers, textbooks, etc… is going to change that. The parents need to step up their game and get involved in their student’s success.
On a side note…I got bullied from several teachers because I refuse to join the NEA. There is no way I want the little money I earn to go towards dues in that organization. I’ll put it to better use.
I grew up in a rural area and was fortunate to attend school in a good public district. However, my parents were actively involved in my education from an early age. They never missed a parent/teacher conference and didn’t hesitate to assist me with school work. They taught me to love reading, communication and music. They also stressed issues of character and moral values. My public education only added to the foundation my parents provided.
I truly believe we shortchange ourselves by isolating the crisis in public education away from the greater social issues including the demise of our moral fabric and the breakdown of families.
Well thank the good Lord for teachers like Christy. Furthermore, thank YOU, Christy, for keepin it real – as the youngsters say now-a-days.
I loved learning as a kid, my parents held me to high, but reachable standards (no less than a “B” was permitted), and I even managed to have some teachers just like you……still hear ‘em encouraging me. Eventually, I worked up to an A- ’cause I wanted to do well in school; it felt kinda good. (Imagine that?)
Not to mention, got me all sorts of “normal” privileges, plus extra goodies from my parents and my friends parents. They all loved us doing well back then…….decades later: whuh happened parents?? Oh, liberalism.
Last, but not least, way to stand for something, something that would not be the NEA. (What a bunch of duds.) At one point in this country unions truly meant something & had a purpose. Now? Dues are glorified Democrat party donations.
I’d rather walk thru hell with gasoline drawers. I know, too much info.
Gone!!
Nationwide, 12.2 percent of all families in urban, rural and suburban settings send their children to private schools. But 21.5 percent of urban public-school teachers send their children to private schools.
In Phoenix, 9.2 percent of urban public-school teachers sent their kids to private schools, compared with 8.2 percent of all families.
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Well, the CEO of Detroit’s PS system announced another round of massive layoffs to be effected shortly. Should’a heard the howling, wailng and gnashing of teeth on the news today.
Ironically, seems that the local ABC station is the most conservative of the MSM crowd (morre so than the FOX affiliate) and once again, they launched into a litany of fraud, waste and abuse with the Detroit system. The best laugh was at the tail end of their 6pm news is when they brought on a leader of the teachers union.
Oh my, she was full of righteous anger, after letting her vent her spleen, the anchor “crucified” her.
Questions like;
–Where was the union when schoolkids had to bring their own toilet paper and supplies to school? Yammer, yammer.
–Why didn’t the union protest the overly large middle management? Stammer, stammer
–Where was the union when administrators wasted money on perks and feel-good parties? Um, umm.
–(closing question)Why did the union lead a day of hooky for teachers to travel to Lansing to complain about class size? Because it’s not fair for teachers to be burdened with large classes.
–Anchor’s parting shot: Well you got your wish, 9,000 kids left the system this year, so you’re gonna have to bite it.
Bwaaahahaha. I’ll have to look for the transcript, it was just too good. One could tell that the anchor was really getting worked up about the overall arrogance and incompetence of these so-called edumaction elites.
Lisa,
Like a good friend told me… there isn’t anything wrong with public education that better parenting wouldn’t cure.
Its been proven time and time again that those kids who are home educated do better in spelling and geography bees they have better SAT scores and show better in many other things we should end madatory schooling and return to private schools or home schooling
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