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sebastian

Jesus fucking Christ

Teri just got a call from the Blackstone school system. The price for a year's tuition just went up from about $4,800 to nearly $10,000!

We don't have that much money. Teri's crying. I don't know what to do. God damn it!

That would be about $250 more than we're paying now, and we're not making it - we haven't been able to save a penny. The car has 150,000 miles on it; it won't last forever. If we saved every penny we get from taxes and whatever this year, it won't cover our additional expenses.

...I have to think about what to do.

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Educational grants?

For a public school when state budgets are being slashed and the economy is heading down for the count? Unlikely, but I'll see what I can find out.

I'm doing business grants. Apparently all you need is a letter asking for $ from some rich person. That's the gist of it.

I went to Forbes and got a list of all the richest people in the US going back 10yrs. Whitepages.com is providing me with answers wink wink.

Btw, my YIM is oldwolf_us.

I want to offer my input on this, because it seemed pertinent to a situation I had to deal with.

In England we do exams called GCSE's when we are 16. We get graded A*-G, or a U for a fail. Most people take between 8-10 subjects as GCSE's.

A close friend of mine, TJ, went to a private school that cost her parents nearly $30,000 a year. I went to one of the worst schools in the inner city of Portsmouth, in the bottom 5 out the school ratings for Portsmouth (20 schools).

When we got our exams results, I was very shocked. TJ took 11 GCSe's, and passed two with C grades (A-C grades are the ones that colleges and employers want you to have). I took 10, got 1 A*, 7 B's and 2 C's. Infinitely better. I went to school with some of the most stupid pupils and some of the worst, cheapest, oldest equipment. However, I still did well.

Bottom line is: if a child WANTS to work, if he is encouraged by his parents, if he does his work, learns to read around subjects and does extra curricular activities, it won't matter what school he goes to, he'll do well. Public school is probably not what you really want. But if Sebastian works hard AND you encourage him (maybe even get him tutoring) he'll succeed.

I second this.

I grew up in a sketchy neighborhood. I went to crappy schools. Usually, we had to share 1 book for every 4 students. Still, other than in Math, which I've always had a problem with (which I suspect may be either rooted in a non-diagnosed learning disability or very deep-seated anxiety- Either way, it's unrelated to the schools I went to), I've done rather well in school. I got a 790 on the SAT verbal, I speak fluent German, I have a BA in International Development, and, as you've commented, my creative writing has a nice, unique style that I pray will eventually get me published. My family never got involved in my education- I had to push myself. I sought out challenges. I did actually drop out of school for a while, but, because I was hungry for knowledge, I found a way back in. Once back, I found scholarships to go abroad, study acting, and study the arts.

The point is, if Sebastian wants to learn, nothing will stop him from it. He'll find a way, whether it involves self-teaching, seeking out mentors, or getting extra encouragement from you.

Oh, and a tip: Usually, the least funded public schools have some of the best magnet programs. Check that out.

That being said:

One of my coworkers' sons used funding from the FAFSA to go to private elementary school. See what scholarships you can get. Consider joining some boring, non-crazy religion in order to take advantage of its private school system- If you question everything Sebastian learns in school at home, he'll emerge mostly unscathed by it (I know quite a few Jews who went to Catholic school and have minimal self-loathing [beyond the normal levels] as a result). I did homeschooling for a while and hated it, but Sebastian may feel differently. Also, as much as I tend to dislike the idea on idealogical grounds, have you considered charter schools?

Edited to add a "but" I'd accidentally deleted and not noticed.

Edited 2008-03-18 01:38 (UTC)

The thing is, the buggest problem isn't that Woonsocket schools are awful from an educational perspective. They are, but what I'm worried about are the rapes, the muggings, and the gang fights.

The police have a nearly-constant presence at the school. It's effectively IN the projects. And we've already been told that no one will be allowed to transfer out. This is about as bad as a school can be.

Well, there is the possibility of home schooling. Or maybe scholarships?
I know the public schools in your area aren't the best, Maybe you could try a different town, if you know someone you can use as an address.

I'd home school, but I do have to work; and Teri doesn't feel able. Plus, Sebastian desperately needs social contact. There are no kids in this neighborhood.

I've considered the "different town" thing. But the problem is A) transportation, and B) the inevitable complications; do we teach him to lie about his address? What happens when he wants to invite kids over to play? We'd spend all our time worrying that he'd get caught.

I don't insist on absolute honestly all the time. Not by any means! But in my experience, there are some things you can get away with, and some things you can't. I don't think we'd get away with this one.

However, there are some options...

That seems insane; they must have had a sudden realization of budget problems and decided that was where they could get extra revenue. Or, I notice at their website something about going to a full-day kindergarten; is it possible that this could be the issue?

No, it's just first grade. They're charging college tuition for first graders. This society has gone insane!

My guess is that yes, they realized that they were completely fucked on the budget and said "Hey, let's just fuck over out-of-state people". The fact is that we CANNOT afford $10,000.00 per year for Sebastian's schooling, though, so he won't be going...probably. But we have to figure out something.

Hmmm.. That increase is a little higher than the inflation rate. What's their justification for such a sharp in crease in fees?

..I have to think about what to do.

Move to Canada?

Really the solution would be to move to a decent school district. But with the economy the way it is...we seem to be trapped in our house. But I'm not 100% certain of that, so I think we're going to talk to a real estate agent and see what our options are.

I don't like the way the real estate market is going globally (well, in a way I do...). If you can get out, get out now. The overvaluation of land prices is going to be a killer.

I agree about the real estate market. But the Massachusetts - Rhode Island area is a bit of an exception to the trend. Real estate prices have been going down, but not as much as elsewhere. The reason is that we're on the coast, in the longest-occupied part of the country (well, occupied by Europeans anyway). It's also the most built-up part of the country. In other words, there's a shortage of real estate and a continuing demand that is higher than in other parts of the country.

HOWEVER, it has occurred to me that if fuel oil prices continue to rise at the current rate, the cost of heating will devastate the region in winter. I am trying to imagine what this region would look like if heating oil triples in price; I don't see how most families could survive. I'm not sure what would happen then. Any thoughts?

Yeah that real estate analysis sounds right... Demand will always be highest where there is infrastructure and good location.. OK, so scrap what I said about the r/e.

Hmmm... My understanding is that the region has warm summers and cold, snowy winters, correct? Under those circumstances and massive increases in heating oil, I'd think of preventative measures like cavity wall insulation and indeed, massive insulation throughout and indeed what they call "superinsulation" (silly word, I know). Makes an incredible difference..

You may even want to think about encouraging friends and neighbours to club together and brainstorm on the matter. After all, it'll be the entire community that suffers if the price increases go ahead...

Unfortunately our house is extremely unusual; it was built in 1835. It predates residential electricity. And so unlike virtually every other house in the US, we have no gaps in our walls. They're just planks with horsehair plaster. So there's nowhere to add insulation.

The house does have aluminum siding; I don't know if there is insulation between the siding and the original exterior of the house, or even if that's possible. But I imagine it's worth looking into.

Heck, we might want to consider simply nailing up insulation all over the inside of the house. I don't know if that would be practical or safe, though.

To tell you the truth, despite the fact that we don't have insulation, I was rather surprised at how relatively well-insulated the house seems to be. It doesn't lose heat rapidly.

I imagine that we'd end up closing off some of the house, using blankets and insulation to have just one "warm room", and using electricity to heat that. The problem would be hot water and the bathroom. We'd probably heat the master bedroom at night, and either put a mattress in there for Sebastian to sleep on, or have him sleep in our bed with us. Of course, this would be in relatively desperate circumstances. But it could happen.

We have no friends in the area, I'm sorry to say; living in a ghetto neighborhood tends to make it difficult to strike up friendships. But we've chatted once in a while with our adjoining neighbors. If things get bad - I mean worse - the topic will undoubtedly come up.

oh that is horrible!!

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