[speaker001:] okay
[speaker002:] okay you go first
[speaker001:] well I have um two kids I have one seven and one five and um they're in a public school here in Tyler and um
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I'm happy with it I'm happy with their school it's great good teachers good curriculum
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] um they learn a lot they have no problems um but I do live in the better and well in the best part of the city though I live in you know the real richy part I guess I'm not but everybody around me is and um but the I have friends that live in the other the less fortunate or whatever you wanna call it part of town and their schools are kind of rundown and um older and they don't really offer as much I don't know as uh the school that my girls are in I don't really think that's fair you know um
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] but you know I'm happy with what they're in so go ahead
[speaker002:] well yeah it it's it's pretty much what I was going to say is there's a lot of disparity between different neighborhoods and what sort of schools go in
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] um I grew up in New York and um the place or not New York City upstate New York
[speaker001:] wow um-hum
[speaker002:] and I went to uh the City of Rochester School District and so a lot of my friends were in one of the neighboring suburbs
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and it wasn't we weren't too far removed geographically from each other but the difference in schools I think was pretty substantial and uh one of the things that probably would have been better if is if the entire county had had had just one school system
[speaker001:] um-hum right
[speaker002:] and that would result in some um could result in more equitable distribution of money because what was happening was you know all the very rich people went out to the move out to the suburbs and the city had a very low tax base so they didn't have a lot of money to work with
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] as a result the schools were rundown there wasn't as many you know the nice supplies in science class that we would have liked there wasn't as many advanced placement courses uh when I was a senior as some other schools had
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh it it so I you know I think that one of the things one of the ways to to to help schools in general uh and get them all to a minimum level of of of competency almost would be to expand the size of school districts so you get a wider variety of people and the the problem with that is then then then people will either the rich people will either pull their kids out of the public school and put them in private schools
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] or they'll move farther away to get better schools so you know it it's kind of you end up chasing like a dog chasing its own tail sort of
[speaker001:] right also um the the family environment you know you can come to south Tyler where I live and you have got room mothers in every room you've got art mothers you've got every every holiday there's parties all the kids have these really supportive really supportive parents always up there for something you can go to north Tyler to the schools and the parents might not could even tell you what their kid's teacher's name is
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum
[speaker001:] you know um that has a a whole lot to do with it you know as far as their learning I mean if the parents aren't um you know willing to go with the kids and find out what they're learning and if they're learning
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know they really don't have much of a chance at all and
[speaker002:] yeah why is that
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] why is that
[speaker001:] oh why are you you just they just don't I mean I mean I'm I'm up there at my kid's school I know what they're learning and if they're up I call and find out you know is she having problems does she need help with anything no she's doing fine okay you know um and I I know kids that their parents could really give a rip and the kids are not motivated
[speaker002:] right right
[speaker001:] they have no motivation from home so they just go to school and you know eh you know I'll get through the day and um bring homework home and there's nobody to to sit them down and say you're going to do this
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] um just you know they they take a notion to do it they do and um that doesn't work either you know they have to have guidance and um they can't just have it at school and then come home and there's nothing
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know
[speaker002:] yeah yeah yeah I know that that that was a big factor for me I ended up coming out of of the public school system very well you know with very good education
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I ended up getting some scholarships to go to college and which has been you know which is really nice and I think the difference for me was that my parents were
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] you know they were definitely they were always there was like well yeah of course you're going to study and do well I mean that's the way of course are you know