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This is also across the board in most California districts. Not just SF. (This article is dated 2016)

I posted this because in our Bay Area school district, algebra and geometry was an accelerated course with just 35 students. (In just one school of the district) Selected by lottery.

It costs 7500/year but they want to get rid of it. Teachers are also planning to strike. To me, it looks like funding in CA public schools is no longer about education but about the care and feeding of public sector unionized employees.

Parents are horrified but in the same neighborhood thread, teachers are using it to ask the parents to support them. Students are given extra credit if they show their support for work the rule(only school work hours and no more clubs and extra classes like this) and strikes and walk outs.

It’s all mind blowing to me(I don’t have kids in the public school system) and I can’t wrap my mind around this. I have been approached by friends who are parents and don’t want to be vocal about their kids children in the community forums as I don’t have the vulnerabilities of parents whose kids are already in the system.

Certain Asian/Indian parents send their kids to tutoring classes which is seen as elitist and reactions have been borderline racist.

I just tell my friends to pull their kids from public school if they can afford it or homeschool them. I am very impressed with khan academy. I looked into it and I find myself learning from their classes.

I have to ask ...what is the point of public education in CA anymore? Should educational methods change and the way we teach subjects change? Conformity is tyranny at this point.

Teachers overload kids with useless assignments and the real learning happens after school in tutoring centers. And then the kids have to learn extra curricular subjects especially as they get closer to applying for universities. This is supposed to make them ‘well rounded’ but it only makes them depressed, stressed and uninterested in education. They become cynical and jaded and entirely unprepared when they go to college. It’s worse for the smart kids as they are bored but still have to go through the motions.

Maybe it’s time to revamp public education.



California has made home schooling more difficult than most states. The cynic in me says that it’s done that way on purpose to protect the position of the public school employees.


Which school district are you referring to? We are looking for a competitive, challenging school district without a suicide problem.




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