I am curious, just what do either or both of you see as the reform that is needed ?  There seem to be TWO big issues -  budgetary issues and student performance. 
 

BYOB wrote:

I can't really speak much to the student performance part, as I don't know how the kids in York City Schools are doing. The budgetary part, however, is out of control. I pay around $4,000 a year on school taxes alone! And no, I do not live in a gold-plated castle. I loathe the fact that private run Charter schools get that tax money too. I'm not sure when it became 'the in thing' to abandon something, just to start something else in order to "fix" it. It's turning out that a lot of those for-profit charter schools suck. There are certain things that I believe should stay public, not private. Schools are one of them.

I understand your plight taxwise. 

I understand that the city schools have the two major problems I listed. 

What I was wondering is what people believe is the solution ? 

Are you for the Wolf plan ? That should solve the high tax side for property owners. Not sure it will solve the district funding problem or not. Have to see more about that one. 

I don't hear any plans for anyone that seem to address the student performance issue. Without changing that, the kids are the real losers. 



 

I can only imagine how difficult it must be for anyone to work with York City School District people.

tennyson wrote:

I am curious, just what do either or both of you see as the reform that is needed ?  There seem to be TWO big issues -  budgetary issues and student performance. 
 

In regards to budgetary issues, there are two parts that a change needs to take place.  First is the management and administration, there has been a lack of effective leadership in the school district for a while.  Even with the threat of being taken over by charters, the teachers and union couldn't even come up with a serious proposal that would have helped reduce expenses, but the administration approved the new contract that wouldn't help solve the problem and then the school board approved it.  Everyone needs to be part of the solution.

Second budgetary issue is the tax structure.  The Wolf plan would help, but there is NOTHING in his plan that would stop school districts from increasing taxes in subsequent years.  A different funding formula needs to be devised that would guarantee less taxes from property owners.  If school property taxes are reduced, investment in the city may result and middle class households may consider buying a house in the city who are now driven away by the high taxes.

In regards to school performance, I stated several times on the old Exchange that I am not sure what the district can do.  There may be some things they can do to review "best practices" of other school districts that are in a similar situation and have improved scores.  However, most of the school performance issues revolves around socio-economic issues.  Most kids live in poverty, growing up in single parent households that are struggling to survive. 42% of students in the school district are Hispanic, with a good percentage of them having English as a second language.  Unfortunately, the culture and households these kids ar growing up do not value education and it is not a priority.  Until something is done to address this issue, I'm not sure how you improve student performance.

While I completely disagree with Common that charters schoolds would have solved the problem (it has been shown repreatedly they don't perform better than public schools), I believe he is correct that now nothing will happen to actually improve the school district.

Apparently Gov Wolf has said "new investments" in schools will solve the problem.  You know, it woud really be nice if people would analyze a situation and come up with a list of issues and solutions, instead of just following ideology.  It is really sad that the only Republican solution was to "privatize it" because private industry solves it better and the Democratic solution is to just spend more money.  We need people with actual ideas, not just spout their party ideology

Last edited by Brady Bunch (3/14/2015 8:36 am)