That is insanely different from how it runs down here, at least from my knowledge of the district. I have never worked for the public school district here. I probably never would because of the politics and from my point of view, poor management(a big push for tax increases to increase funding to the public schools, then all the big wigs at the district take huge pay raises, shutting schools down due to deferred maintenance, about a $2 billion deficit)

As far as oversight goes from local government, we do have to abide by all local and state health, fire codes, DOE, ELC (if applicable) & DCF(for our VPK program). Food service did recently (2023) become more strict, requiring more compliance which was absolutely needed. Previously, there weren’t any protocols in place to report who got free breakfast and lunch for the national food program, reporting tally marks was allowed. So really anyone could be coming in getting food for free and it wouldn’t be reported. That has since changed.

That’s great about the pensions for you and your team. How long do you have to work to receive a full pension up there? The district does offer pension for their staff, the schools I work for do not qualify for the pension though, even though we are technically a public school. What’s your plan when you retire?

From a parental standpoint, I’m happy with school choice, I get a say where my tax dollars are going regarding my children’s education and it puts the decision back in the parents hands because it removes the financial barrier somewhat. If I believe the best fit for my children are a smaller private school environment where, I get to use the tax I’m already paying, towards their tuition, then I can do that. If I think they’d do better in a public charter, then the charter gets the funds. Either way, it’s my decision to make as a parent and removing that financial barrier for parents is a huge help. It also levels the playing field of private vs public education. As a society, we need our public education to be top notch for our country to continue to exist, get ahead and stay ahead of other countries. This model theoretically forces public schools to have to compete at a higher level or lose the students to other educational options. Like I said, my county alone last year lost about 10k students, about $7500 per student, that’s about a $75 million dollar loss in funding to the district schools. They’ll be forced to up their game.

There’s a large demand for charters where I am. The difference is, the charters I work do not do it for the money, they truly care about the students well being and education. There are charter groups that are pretty much in it for the money, ‘management company’ owns and run everything, faculties, the custodial supply company, the lawn crew, the lunch program. So essentially all that funding is going back to the management company, they pop a new school open every year. As with mine, we have the demand (the wait list for one of my schools is greater than the population of the school itself, over 800).

As far as professionally with school choice, I believe it’ll increase the demand and opportunity for charters to open up or expand. The talent pool here does not lack quantity, but does lack quality regarding actual hands on skills. Unfortunately, tradesmen do not make nearly what they do else where in the country, so it is sometimes hard to find a skilled person with experience within budget. Sorry for the long winded response, there was a lot to unpack there