New York is one of 5 States to extend school hours and days

[Doc]

The school systems have it all figured out when it comes to getting their budgets passed. When the first vote doesn't turn out the way they want it, they just make a few public threats about cuts to the voter's favorite programs (sports) and then tinker with a couple of insignificant numbers and have another vote. If that doesn't work, they'll keep going for a new vote until the opposition tires and gives up.

[ATbuckhunter]

Good thing i am graduating high school in June. The middle school i went to ended at 4:00 so i wouldn't get home until like 6:00 everyday but Friday.

[bubba]

Extended school hours-good luck. Kids have enough pressure on them right now with the amount of work they bring home. As for the sports programs, which wasn't a part of the original post, leave them as is.

It's your choice to play or not.

It really isn't your choice. It is the coaches choice of you make the team or not. In my area, sports programs are for the few elites who play all sports all year. It may be for the same 50 or so kids year round, and the rest go and watch. To me it is way too much money to spend on a few elites. And yes I said this at a school board meting this past spring, when they wanted to cut two teacher positions and not touch sports programs. And my kids are all out of school to include college.

[erussell]

Ah what a load of crap!! They have been throwin more and more money at education for yrs and it hasn't changed a thing. Only thing its done is make Union payrolls fatter. You want your kids to learn like the Japs than you got to treat your kid like a Jap kid and take away all their free time and put their face in a book 24 / 7. I dont see American parents doing that to their kids, So no amount of money or time is going to fix anything. If the kid doesnt want to learn they arent going to. And another thing, birth rates are at an all time low so why do we need more money to teach less kids than we did 10 yrs ago?

[growalot]

Ya know I have to ask...seeing Mr.B has built the gym facilities for 3 different prisons on this state.... and ask Culvert what goes into the Federal prisons if you don't believe me....

How much of your hard earned cash do you think goes toward the recreational facilities and for the libraries and education are fine NYS criminals are receiving?

It has galled me for years the amount of $$$ that goes into those state institutions...and believe me the state requires the best when these are built....

So whens the last time a group of ppl have been on line raging against these fine criminals getting state of the art sports facilities?...Just a thought

Edited December 5, 2012 by growalot

[wdswtr]

Heck Im late to this ball game lol. I tell you what, all I know is my kids have more days off from school than they attend. Its rediculous, teacher conference days, unused snowdays, holidays I never heard of, winter break, spring break, summer break, days off for things that make no sense to me like parent teacher conferences are now during the day alot too. So kids get it off or half day and a parent has to leave work early or not go. The amount of time my kids sit behind a desk in comparisson to the amount of days they are practicing sports or playing games is rediculous. Even on the holidays when they have time off they have practice or a game. Heck they have practice on sunday, and yep you cant beat it in there heads that the chance of a 110 lb 11 grader isnt got a chance in hell to be a pro football player either. It is so frustrating because its a catch 22, the chances of an acedemic scholarship of any decent amount of funding is alot harder to get than that sports scholarship as well. I been to so many darn school board meetings on them asking to raise taxes to fund a new football field to a team that hasnt won but a handful of games in 10 years, new baseball fields, new track fields, new indoor pool, new sports equipment, new maintenance equipment to manage all the new crap they want to raise the school taxes to buy this stuff for. And in the mean time they tell you they want to close one elementary down and merge it with another because the roof leaks and they dont have the funds to maintain the building. Next thing you know they other 2 close and they merge them with the middle school because they cant fund those either. But hey we got 3 new baseball fields, new track field, new football field, new bleachers at all of them, new concessions stands, new equipment to maintain it all. I yet to see once this year either one of the kids come home with more than 10 minutes of homework after getting home at 8 after practice. Yep I said 8. Cant keep the kids up all night after practice doing homework and learning but sure isnt a problem keeping them out till 8 running around a basketball court. I would love to find out the true meaning as why this is, maybe because they dont want to lose funding for and shove it in the easiest spot being sports where there is less mindset involved, or is it for luring in people to move here because the place looks fantastic if you take a tour of it and see all the new crap they put our money into. I have no problem with kids wanting some athletics and sports in there childhood schooling but darn when it is the center of the education, the majority of how there tme is spent, its way overboard. I should keep a record of amount of time they are active with practice and games vs. seat time in a classroom because it doesnt add up in favor of education. On top of all that Im paying for another to get through college who did get a decent academic scholarship and has a 50/50 chance of finding a job after applying herself more than alot of kids do for her education and future. You cant win it seems. Back in my days BOCES and learning a trade was a fantastic thing. You could come out from that and get a decent job placement, you tell the kids that now and they tell you BOCES is for dumb people. WHAT? I guess Im dumb because learning a trade got me some decent jobs which turned into starting a business in that trade that feeds my family, puts these kids through college and puts clothes on there backs. So I guess learning a trade is not a good thing anymore according to what they are being taught and why wouldnt they how many trades are left inside this country like there was in our day? IN conclusion to this rant lol, most all the time and money is spent on sports, less on education, learning a trade is a bad thing but yet you need to spend most your time playing sports to hope to get a scholarship so you can go to college to get a higher education in order to have a 50/50 shot of getting a job or being a bum. Yep our education system is doing a bang up job!

[wdswtr]

Grow if you love the prison deal you will like this one too. A big part of my work is to cut cost and provide equipment and service to companies, towns, cities, school districts etc. Here is a choker for you. I will round up numbers to a couple examples to a particular city school district. I bid on a contract to place equipment and service them, I was told after placing the bid that my numbers where to low. I couldnt believe it I have never gotten a phone call saying I need to raise the pricing. Needless to say I showed where I could save them around 100,000 on a 1 year contract with renewal options to maintain the same rate and just replacing 1 piece of equipment and the saving got substantially larger for every peice they replaced, showing I have the abilities to maintain them as well and supply all needed assets to keep them running. Guess what they went with the highest bid, got suckered into buying more equipment than they needed and some of it has never been turned on yet 2 years later and they still have to pay a pretty hefty contract regardless for 5 years. I took all this to the highest level I could reach and got nowheres, but a basic response of if we dont spend the money by years end we wont get that money replaced in next years budget. So now that district is undregoing budget cuts and so is that department with job losses including the one who called and said my prices where to low. But they looked at today and not the future and I hope they learned a lesson, but its sad cause they could have avoided this frivilous spending and a waste of tax dollars. Im am only one small example too. I cannot imagine the grand total of waste. Its truly sad.

Edited December 5, 2012 by wdswtr

[erussell]

I gaurantee a member of a union complained about your low prices and called your quality into question. They are dirty enough to do that. Unions are run by the same people they were 50 yrs ago. Mob bosses and Socialist. New boss same as the old boss. Except now they have the Government hand them your money instead of doin their own dirty work. I better stop talkin before I get a horse head on my pillow.

[wdswtr]

I gaurantee a member of a union complained about your low prices and called your quality into question. They are dirty enough to do that. Unions are run by the same people they were 50 yrs ago. Mob bosses and Socialist. New boss same as the old boss. Except now they have the Government hand them your money instead of doin their own dirty work. I better stop talkin before I get a horse head on my pillow.

Im betting the same. I put alot of work into that one too. Took them to the warehouse, showed them the steps in reconditioning used equipment, took them around to different customers, had references for quality and response times, let them demo a machine, went the whole nine on that one and it was all for a good profit margin as well. They were convinced at first when I brought the recomended equipment list to them that I was off base but proved they had no need for the high end stuff that they have zero demand for but also threw that package together and priced it out. What they do? Yes sir bought the exact package I proved would be more than adequate from a company that (for lack of better words) raped the tax payers wallet with a smile.

Edited December 5, 2012 by wdswtr

[wdswtr]

How did I get suckerd into another one of these political threads anyways?

[erussell]

How did I get suckerd into another one of these political threads anyways?

I know right!! Dang it, it just pizzes me off I cant help myself. The Libs say their for the little guy and when you try to get ahead pizz all over you. I read somewhere ( trying to find it again ) where a builders union was going around to work sites and threatening to sue the government if the workers weren't union. They said they didnt want the government using low paid workers for work. Wait a minute isnt that their base? They should be bending over backwards to help them. And the poor keep voting them in to office what a bunch of maroooons!!!!

[First-light]

It really isn't your choice. It is the coaches choice of you make the team or not. In my area, sports programs are for the few elites who play all sports all year. It may be for the same 50 or so kids year round, and the rest go and watch. To me it is way too much money to spend on a few elites. And yes I said this at a school board meting this past spring, when they wanted to cut two teacher positions and not touch sports programs. And my kids are all out of school to include college.

There is a wide range of talent on teams, not just for the few star players. Did you ever hear of JV teams????

[bubba]

Umm yup and 10 kids on jv ten on varsity for the basket ball team. Ummm there is 20 kids out of 1000. To me it still seems like a small number for the money. The same 10 kids play on the baseball team with a few more to sit and watch from the bench and maybe 50 kids all together for the soccer program. Again out of 1000 or so students a pretty small percentage get to take advantage of the program. Parents your glory days are over. Stop trying to live vicariously through your kids or hoping that yours is the one who makes it big. The odds are way too slim for me to waste my money on them. Reading writing and arithmetic, not free throw percentage and earned run averages. Most kids cant even calculate either statistic.

[erussell]

Even though Im no where near a sports fan and can care less about sports. There have been a lot of kids who have gotten a free pass through college because of their sports talent that other wise would not have had a chance in heck of goin to school. Yeah there are a few bone heads who mess it up but the majority are good kids just tryin to get ahead in life. I cant hold it against them that they are talented. So more power to them, and I dont mind spendin afew dollars more to help out.

[bubba]

and the majority of these kids can barely write. Basics first.

[growalot]

Yep ...basically if you have a kid in high school that can barely write.....get some NEW TEACHERS that can teach at least the basics....Stop the practice of sliding kids through the system just to keep your #'s up

[Doc]

Ah what a load of crap!! They have been throwin more and more money at education for yrs and it hasn't changed a thing. Only thing its done is make Union payrolls fatter. You want your kids to learn like the Japs than you got to treat your kid like a Jap kid and take away all their free time and put their face in a book 24 / 7. I dont see American parents doing that to their kids, So no amount of money or time is going to fix anything. If the kid doesnt want to learn they arent going to. And another thing, birth rates are at an all time low so why do we need more money to teach less kids than we did 10 yrs ago?

We always seem to go after the easy answers rather than the correct answers don't we? Throw money at it .... throw time at it. Has anyone even bothered to ask what would be done during this new expanded time at school? Does anyone even care, or is this just another one of those quick useless ideas that once implemented everyone walks away patting each other on the back and thinking all the problems are solved. Could it be that we need some serious overhaul of the educational system rather than just increasing the number of hours spent doing the same wrong things?

My thought is that the first place to start is parent education. A lot of the problems involve attitudes and activities that take place in the home. Much of the motivations and work ethics are taught in the home. A lot of distractions should be controlled by the parents. Get these people educated and on board and you probably will have plenty of time at school already. Along with that, evaluate curriculums and where resources and time are spent in school. Put some business management principles into the way schools are managed. A little corporate mentality in the school systems might work wonders as far as appropriate decisions to get the job done.

Forget the quick easy answers. There just might be a whole lot that can change with some real positve results than the length of the school day.

[bubba]

Yep ...basically if you have a kid in high school that can barely write.....get some NEW TEACHERS that can teach at least the basics....Stop the practice of sliding kids through the system just to keep your #'s up

so how will new teachers stop practies unions and administrators have embraced for years?

[First-light]

Umm yup and 10 kids on jv ten on varsity for the basket ball team. Ummm there is 20 kids out of 1000. To me it still seems like a small number for the money. The same 10 kids play on the baseball team with a few more to sit and watch from the bench and maybe 50 kids all together for the soccer program. Again out of 1000 or so students a pretty small percentage get to take advantage of the program. Parents your glory days are over. Stop trying to live vicariously through your kids or hoping that yours is the one who makes it big. The odds are way too slim for me to waste my money on them. Reading writing and arithmetic, not free throw percentage and earned run averages. Most kids cant even calculate either statistic.

Around by me sports and academics are big and if you don't get the grades you don't play. Sorry I just don't see you point of view. I'm leaving this thread, its going nowhere.

Edited December 5, 2012 by First-light

[growalot]

By going to board meetings and contacting your state reps and implementing plans to make TEACHERS accountable....

Like they have finally started doing in the Rochester school system....I won't believe that ppl are still think that the unions hold the ridiculous power they had years ago...The being afraid of unions era is waning

Edited December 5, 2012 by growalot

[WNYBuckHunter]

It might be but the majority of budgets keep on passing, the people have spoken.

The people, generally, are idiots that allow themselves to get roped into voting yes to something that they truly dont realize the repercussions of. How many of the people that vote yes to the sports BS also complain that their taxes are outrageous, or that our schools and education levels are going down the toilet? How many of the complainers go to the town and school meetings?

[growalot]

I take it your not going to allow your kids to join any sports teams...or the ski club...drama club...band...music?

Wasn't it this forum I was on not to long ago...... with some of you same guys saying they need to get archery into the school system for kids could get involved in hunting? Hhhmmmmm

[Karpteach]

I truly hate getting into this argument again.. but here we go! I believe that a greater emphasis needs to placed on parent involvement! The family unit has disappeared! Do you know how many students I know that have only one parent at home! That parent is usually work 2 to 3 jobs to support their families. They have little time to sit down with their children to help with there studies. America is a latch key society ( one reason or another).

I know of the nincompoops on this site that blame just the teachers, it's not the whole story. Don't forget America's average sucks, not all the students are doing badly!

What would you do if your boss told you " I need you to work 300 hours more a year without getting paid"! I know of the tea her haters are going to say..me I'd work those hours without getting paid ! Yeah right!

[growalot]

Well this nincompoop...didn't blame JUST the teachers...go back and read

That said...Have you ever heard of salaries?...there are.... I know..... many ppl on here that do work many hours over that magical 40 limit ....with out any extra pay....and they don't have July thru August off...just saying

[tughillhunter]

you wont catch this guy working over 40 for nothing. f that.