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Stories about parents upset with CRT, vaccine mandates, virtual teaching, and, well, you name it, just about anything you can think of in our public schools have brought home the essential difference between public schools and private schools. Of course, most public schools have to cater to a large, in some cases, a vast constituency of parents, teachers, administrators, taxpayers, unions, and politicians. But, on the other hand, private schools only have to satisfy the families that opt to send their children to them.

As much as possible, let's compare apples to apples as we look at how public schools and private schools cope with the incredible number of pressure points involved in running a school in the second decade of the 21st-century.

This video from PBS explains critical race theory.

A public school district's mission

Constituency

Generally, a public school district serves the municipality in which it is located. The exception occurs when several towns band together to create a regional school district. Thus, public schools have to be responsive to the community's needs. They also have to follow all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations that pertain to their operation.

Funding

Most of a public school district's funding comes from real estate taxes levied by the municipality. Most school district budgets are presented, discussed, and voted on in the first four months of the calendar year. If the taxpayers disapprove

I have written about the issue of over-protective parents recently. The subject intrigues me because I have always wondered what drives parents to be that way. Why would any parent want to disempower their child? After all, that's one of the downsides of being over-protective. Unfortunately, I can only speak authoritatively from my own experience raising two daughters and two sons. In this article, I will refer to and quote more knowledgeable people to explain what's involved with raising bubble-wrapped children.

How we raised our children

We were always concerned with our children's safety. Fortunately, the communities where we lived were safe. Back in the 70s and 80s, we didn't have to worry about social media and video games. As a classical musician, I recall being appalled at some of the popular music my children listened to. But they had caring, experienced teachers in the private schools they attended. We provided enrichment activities including horse-riding, music lessons, summer sessions at talented and gifted schools. Looking back at those times, I must confess that I probably would have been a helicopter father, that is, if my dear wife had let me act that way. But she didn't. She never missed a trick. Nothing escaped her when it came to her children. Absolutely nothing. Her secret was to let her kids make mistakes. I remember when our eldest daughter came in 30 minutes after she was supposed to be home. Her mother was waiting patiently and greeted a

How to Keep Teens Safe While Traveling Alone

Traveling in uncertain times is a challenge for most of us adults.So, imagine how many dangers, real and imagined, a young person will face when she travels alone.

• Increased Anxiety: Teens may face heightened anxiety due to the uncertainty of travel conditions, such as changing health guidelines and travel restrictions.

Scholarship Tax Credit ProgramsSchool choice has been a fact in American K-12 education since 1989. That year the State of Wisconsin passed a voucher program which aimed to help students from low-income families in Milwaukee. Since then 39 states have established school choice programs. Depending on the state, school choice programs have expanded to include educational savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, and individual tax credit/deduction which parents can use to send their children to a private school.

Most states also allow parents to transfer their children from underperforming public schools to higher-performing public schools. In addition, many states have permitted the establishment of charter schools as one more alternative to an underperforming public school. Because allocating taxpayer funding to educational resources other than public schools is controversial, numerous legal challenges have been filed. Depending on the state, you will see a variety of workarounds including the afore-mentioned educational savings accounts, tax credit scholarships, and individual tax credits/deductions.

According to the American Federation for Children, the following states now have some form of funding for school choice program. In fact, several states offer several educational choice options. For the latest information https://www.federationforchildren.org/

Other resources include Noodle which has assembled a useful to the various educational choice

The Velcro Parent

Velcro is a hook-and-loop fastener that sticks things together. It also has become a popular term for describing a certain kind of over-protective parent. The other term used to describe such parents is helicopter parent. The term drone is also used. I was curious about the phenomenon as I don't recall that Nancy or I were that over-protective with our children. My research indicates that hovering came into vogue with the advent of smartphones. Texting and apps make keeping in touch with your children very easy. It is very easy to be too involved. That is not good for your child, and her school will not appreciate your velcro tendencies. There has to be a balance between hands-on involvement and a hands-off approach. So, let's approach the issue from that perspective. We will look at how this applies to each grade level as your children progress through their schools.

Pre-school

I was one of those lucky fathers who drove his daughters to their pre-schools. In those days, back in the 70s, I was on the staff of a large Episcopal church on Long Island. Our house was about 2 miles from my eldest daughter's preschool. The preschool was located in the Sunday School classroom wing of the church. The school had just been established because of the strong demand for pre-schools in that South Shore community.

Literally, the two of us would get out of the car and enter the front door of the church