Another Solution being discussed!

[Chakra20]

Good Job. Some people just get so fired up about this issue they dont used logic and read what people are saying.

 

VolGen very good post about what exactlly happens at some schools. Many public supporters dont do one thing for their school to help grow the program. I mean the parents at Ezell do everything they can to help support the team even when we where terrible they were there. Even parents of kids that have already graduated try to help in whatever capacity they can. I just wanted to give alittle example of what a student in a private school is more like.

 

My mother sacrificed and i dont use that word lightly. She sacrificed her time money and energy in order to send me to schools that hav e a higher percentage chance of producing a sucessful student, which in my case it didnt but manily cause the motivation wasnt there on my part. We didnt have the money too send me to school there, but somehow she made it work and i really appreciate that now. As far as the stereotype placed on private students as rich kids while it may be true at some schools that are priced outside the norms (MBA, BA etc...) at most of the small ABC in Nashville it is not true.

 

The bonds i formed will last a life time. But for example, my friends parents worked as bartenders, strippers, truck drivers, apartment managers, managing restaurants and health clubs, they were teachers at public schools, delivery men and women, secrataries. They worked the exact same jobs as everyone else is my point and what it boils down to is a choice. A choice betweeen public schools and private schools in Nashville is a no brainer. Now some of the kids did have suceesful parents that held high ranking jobs, but thats what made it so great you got a mix of everything EVERYONE FROM BARTENDERS TO CEO'S kids went to school there.

 

Ceasar shows us a glimpse of what the private supporters see as the public school supporters biggest problem. While the majority are interested in having an intelligent discussion about the facts and what are the differnces in the two schools. People such as ceaser just want a reason to fly off the handle, and say

 

" 35,000? THIS IS EXACTLY OUR POINT! Most small public schools football budget is somewhere between $5,000 and $12,000. Give me a break, you can't see any difference here? You have just proved our point to the whole state. You simply don't have a clue. Don't you dare say these small schools just need to work harder, raise more money, etc., etc., etc., the answer is for the private schools to move up or out into their own division! Private coaches to every away game, Can we say, "ELITE?"

 

I mean if you truely had a cognitive bone in your body this would never be something you would never say or post. I think the main problem in this debate as in anything is the lack of communcation between the two sides. I know people want the playing fields to be fair and they are not right now, but maybe we can come up with a plan that everyone can agree on. Now everyone will not be happy with it because that is impossible, but if they could all agree to something or in a sense "live with it" that would be the best thing.

[TheEgoHasLanded]

ELA has said that his team can not raise money because he will get in trouble for doing it.

 

At my private school we raised over 20,000 dollars by having a "lift-a-thon" every kid was supposed to raise 200 dollars or so...almost all of them were given by friends of the program, but mostly they weren't from parents...The money I raised wasn't from my parents, it was from asking people and getting off my butt at 7 at night in the summer and asking people for donations...One individual gave me over 1500 dollars and was not involved with my high school at all...it's called WORKING for it...bake sales, car washes, raffles...I don't see how they doesn't raise money for public schools...

 

I see the Germantown cheerleaders or Bartlett Cheerleaders always washing cars, and I doubt they would be out there if it wasn't working?

[southernpride]

Posted by TheEgoHasLanded:

ELA has said that his team can not raise money because he will get in trouble for doing it.

 

At my private school we raised over 20,000 dollars by having a "lift-a-thon" every kid was supposed to raise 200 dollars or so...almost all of them were given by friends of the program, but mostly they weren't from parents...The money I raised wasn't from my parents, it was from asking people and getting off my butt at 7 at night in the summer and asking people for donations...One individual gave me over 1500 dollars and was not involved with my high school at all...it's called WORKING for it...bake sales, car washes, raffles...I don't see how they doesn't raise money for public schools...

 

I see the Germantown cheerleaders or Bartlett Cheerleaders always washing cars, and I doubt they would be out there if it wasn't working?

 

Wealth creates more wealth. Poverty breeds more poverty! Ask poor kids in a metro school to go out and raise money. Ask their parents to do the same. Yes, some will, but most will say no! Are you going to kick a kid off the team if he can't or won't help you raise money? NO!

[RealGoEagles]

If he says no then I guess we solved the "Who works harder argument didn't we?"

 

These are all excuses for complacency and political correctness. If you can't win the way things are now, you're not going to try new things yourselves, you're going to throw out those who are doing the right things and winning.

 

I bet you're all card carrying members of the ACLU.

[lazarus]

vg states:

 

"Madison County has a population of 90,000. There are 3 private schools hewre who compete for the same kids, so that gets it down to 30,000 per school."

 

that is very interesting, i would be curious as to how they went about dividing the population. does one school get the kids north of the interstate, another gets the kids south of the interstate & west of old US-45, with the kids south of the interstate & east of 45 going to the other? or maybe they are going by first initials, A-D to one, E-M at another, and N-Z at the last (no, looking at the roster shoots that down). just how do you decide which 30,000 your school gets to choose from?

 

here's what i think. i think the best school gets to draw from 90,000 people, and the lesser schools get to draw from what is left. and i know which school is the best: usj. were i to move into jackson, and send my daughter to a private school (again), i would apply at usj. their prominent athletic programs spotlight them as the best. according to the numbers submitted to tssaa there are 670 students between the 3 schools. that comes to one private school student per 134 people in vg's 90,000 population (actually it is 91,837 per 2000 census). after usj has picked their 316 kids, that leaves only 47,656 population for the other 2 schools to draw from. who is the second best, i have no clue.

 

now lets look at what is available in some other counties.

assuming that celina could pick the kids they want from all of clay county, they would get to select from a population of 7,976 (2000 census). if they got one private calibre kid for every 134 people, that would give them 60 students.

 

how about trousdale? they do get their whoooole county, all 7,259 of them. ought to yield about 54.

 

moore county, 5,740, or 43 private calibre.

 

lake co, 7,954 for 59.

 

and lets not forget wayne co. theyve got 2 schools splitting from 16,842 people. if collinwood could get first pick, they could muster 126 kids.

 

now that i have given you a chance to start forming your response, let me say that i am fully aware that there will be SOME kids choosing based on convenience, or church affiliation, etc. first, an occurrence is not the same thing as a trend, second, am i to honestly believe that parents who value the athletics in a school are going to choose that way?

[VolunteerGeneral]

Laz...Congrats. I see you put some time, effort and research into that post. Of course you know they don`t have dividing lines for the private schools, but the touch of sarcasm was nice. My point,(and I think you fully understood it)is that the private schools don`t have this huge mass of people to choose from. People can get on here and say all they want about how private schools have a larger area to get kids from. They can think that they get them from all over the world if they want to, the fact is the vast majority come from Madison County. There is a very limited number of people who have the resources to attend a private school and there are even fewer that would be motivated to attend one. It`s just a misconception that they have this unlimited area to get kids from. You know that and I know that. I just wanted people to sit and think about it before they go spouting off again about how easy it is to get kids.

 

As far as your other figures go, the only thing you proved (IMO) is that Trousdale, Moore and Lake County etc... are not big enough to support a private school. Which is probably why you don`t see private schools in those counties I would imagine.

 

As far as the three schools go, all 3 are very good schools and offer a variety of things. USJ/OHA is the oldest private school in Jackson (early 70`s) and that gave them a bit of a head start, but they are also the most expensive which would further limit who they could get. (others on here have said many times that private schools are comprised of a lot of people who are barely getting by financially and it is true.)

 

You also spoke of the religious aspect...

 

"am i to honestly believe that parents who value the athletics in a school are going to choose that way?"

 

Yes you should believe that. I guess you`ll have to take my word for it Laz. I have coached and been involved heavily in youth sports here for over 10 years.(Both girls and boys) I know or know of most all these kids and I can tell you for a fact that these other schools have kids going there who are really good athletes and whose parents are really into sports. I`ll give you one example of many. There is a kid who is one of the best pitchers in the area. His dad graduated from USJ/OHA and yet they made the decision to attend TCA even though USJ has a really good baseball team. Yes if they wanted to pick the better sports program, they would have to pick USJ based on their successes, but sports is not a very good reason to choose a school. If sports was all they were interested in then they could have just as easily stayed in a public school. Public schools do have sports and the better athletes at these schools would have no problem making the teams at the public schools. So why would someone waste thousands of dollars just to play sports? The answer is the education and learning environment. They care about their kids(not saying that public parents like myself don`t) and realize that this is an important age for them and want a place with the fewest distractions and best educational opportunities they can get.