Out of district students, at the moment, are not paying vouchers. Expanding means building more schools and yes hiring more staff, but there is no expansion in the tax base to easily cover those costs. Schools are at max right now, at the moment, because of the influx of immigrants, who also don’t pay taxes. Also, it takes time to pass bonds to build and then it takes added time to build, if bonds to build are passed by the voters. It’s not as easy as you think. Teachers wind up having to share their classroom with other teachers, secondary classrooms are crowded and support staff is spread very thin.
True enough, vouchers would help alleviate those costs. I taught 29 years. My first year teaching I was a “floater”. I moved from one classroom to the next, taking each teacher’s room during their conference period. Oh, and I taught physical science and biology and coached middle school kids for 2 class periods. I had to cart my lab equipment/demonstration items from one classroom to the next. I had no room for my conference period, just a computer in the science storage hallway. That’s because our school district was growing and they had to add a science/math wing onto the high school. Yeah, I know exactly what happens when a school district has a huge jump in enrollment.
A school that is maxed out but receiving a constant inflow of money, will be able to expand and hire more staff.
They wouldn't be constrained by fixed or shrinking budgets.
Out of district students, at the moment, are not paying vouchers. Expanding means building more schools and yes hiring more staff, but there is no expansion in the tax base to easily cover those costs. Schools are at max right now, at the moment, because of the influx of immigrants, who also don’t pay taxes. Also, it takes time to pass bonds to build and then it takes added time to build, if bonds to build are passed by the voters. It’s not as easy as you think. Teachers wind up having to share their classroom with other teachers, secondary classrooms are crowded and support staff is spread very thin.
I was talking about if parents had vouchers to spend at good schools, those schools would have the money to expand.
It all starts with vouchers.
My dad taught elementary for over 30 years, and I worked at a school for 10 years so I know about how schools operate.
True enough, vouchers would help alleviate those costs. I taught 29 years. My first year teaching I was a “floater”. I moved from one classroom to the next, taking each teacher’s room during their conference period. Oh, and I taught physical science and biology and coached middle school kids for 2 class periods. I had to cart my lab equipment/demonstration items from one classroom to the next. I had no room for my conference period, just a computer in the science storage hallway. That’s because our school district was growing and they had to add a science/math wing onto the high school. Yeah, I know exactly what happens when a school district has a huge jump in enrollment.
I was never in the classroom, I was an IT supervisor in a school before I retired.
But yeah, most school systems are horribly mismanaged and they spend money on the wrong things.