EvilConservative: I have to agree with you about the "problem students" sometimes going into the private schools. This was common back in the 1970s also. If a child was expelled from the public schools, they usually ended up in the private schools. Sometimes they did OK; sometimes they left pretty quickly.

Private schools are not as picky as claimed, the private schools I know of would take students that could pay tuition. In fact a lot of times "problem kids" get put in private schools specifically. I do agree parental involvement is critical. How would you explain the great success of the voucher system? The voucher system spends less money per student then the public system, and has better results.

Ivbald527: Can you tell me what those required services involve? I honestly don't know. When I was a child, I attended public school through sixth grade but then begged my parents to transfer me into a private school. The only thing that the public system covered was bus service because I lived more than two miles from my private school.

EvilConservative: Private schools can pick and choose which students they take and they do not provide all the services that public schools are required to provide. In fact, public schools are requred to provide some of those services to private school students, as well.

Countless studies have shown that the two main factors are good teachers and parent involvement. Private schools were parents are paying tuition generally have a much higher rate of parental envolvement; including time spent at home on homework, concern about their childs grades, friends and extra-curricular activities. This is what leads to higher private school scores. You can also look at poverty rates of public and private schools. All of these have a much greater impact on private vs public school scores than teacher quality.

samueladams: Your statement is not true. Dr. Schulte's total package is about the same as it was for Dr. Evert.

Sincerely,
Bill Sodemann

Private Schools have very good results when compared to public, and they don't have a union, and cost less per child then public education. I am just interested to see how the negotiations play out now that there is no salary cap on teachers, since Doyle signed the state budget into law.

jp53545
Is that fair to the teachers after they gave Dr. Shulte an 8.25% raise over Dr. Evert?

jp53545,

If the School Board followed your advice, the students would have a better than average chance of turning out as ignorant as you sound.

Offer the teachers no raise and no increase in bennies. When the union howls, tell them that's it or they're all let go. Period. Screw it - nobody's got the money for bigger salaries any more. And tell the Superintendent to cut the staff at the Admin Bldg by 50%, too. There's no reason that every person down there needs their own secretary.