Hi, I’m Hannah, and I’m an American. (Pause for boos.) I grew up going to public school in Massachusetts, but I’ve lived and traveled all over since then, and I have friends in many different states. One thing that’s always struck me is how different my experience growing up was compared to that of my friends, especially those from other states.
Turns out, things are MASSIVELY different in different states and even different schools within states. Public schools are publicly funded, but since part of that funding comes from local property tax, places with residents of higher tax brackets will end up with much nicer schools. Beyond that, industry, cultural, and political differences will have a huge influence. While some things feel universal to the American public school experience, other things — like sex education, arts and theater programs, what electives are offered, and even what buildings look like — are extremely varied.
If you want to see some photos to demonstrate, keep on scrollin’!
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Check out the gym of this public school in Illinois.
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This Texas school literally built its school building around the football field.
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Money spent on sports facilities does not mean any money is spent on the school building, though! Check out this school in Ohio.
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For example, here’s where the budget for a planned renovation at a public school in Minnesota is going.
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The rural Midwest is a whole different experience. This public high school in Ohio has a “drive your tractor to school” day.
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Some public high schools are so nice that they look like castles, like this one in Washington.
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This public school from Virginia is also pretty beautiful.
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As is this public school in Arkansas.
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Then there’s this public Colorado school with, according to this article, “five buildings, a quad for outdoor gatherings, eight tennis courts, pickleball courts, two large soccer/football/lacrosse fields, three full-size basketball courts, a softball field, and a baseball field.” Oh, and “Performing Arts Center includes a theatre with a music classroom, rehearsal spaces, and a stagecraft workshop for building sets.”
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On the other extreme, there’s this strip mall public charter high school in Florida, though, to be fair, this appears to be more of an alternative program to gain a high school diploma than a traditional high school.
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Going to public school in the South seems like a gamble. You get massive sports stadiums, or you get a Confederate flag on your doors, like at this Virginia public high school.
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Public schools should be nonpartisan, but that didn’t stop teachers in Texas from writing this after the 2012 election.
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This Texas school was straight-up sexist.
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The rules seem a little more…well, evangelical in the south. This public school in Texas punished students for “PDA.” It was two kids holding pinkies.
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And this public school in Mississippi sent a letter home after a male student wore earrings.
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These pamphlets were given to a kid who went to middle and high school in Virginia, but really, they could be from any state…and not just in the South.
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Here’s what a library in Florida looks like after all the book bans.
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Here, you can also see banned books being removed from a public school in Texas.
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Other schools actually label and celebrate books that have been banned in other parts of the US.
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California was the first state to offer free school lunches to every public school student, and honestly, they look delicious. Why can’t every state do this?
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Here’s another free California public school lunch.
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This is another yummy-looking school lunch, this time from a public middle school in Vermont that makes use of farm-to-school initiatives.
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Meanwhile, here’s a school lunch from New Jersey.
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I may have gone to school in Massachusetts, but this Illinois public school lunch looks extremely familiar to me.
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I was today years old when I learned some public high schools have literal stores in them. (We just had a couple of people in hairnets.) This one’s in Texas.
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At this school in North Carolina, if kids don’t have enough money, they can’t eat. And their food will get THROWN AWAY.
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This school in Arizona is treating kids like cattle.
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This Texas high school literally has a shooting range.
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And this public elementary school in Texas has a sign that the staff is armed.
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They also have signs like this in Ohio.
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Other public schools, like this one in New York, check every single student’s bag for gun safety…because our country won’t pass actual gun safety laws.
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This elementary school in Oklahoma deals with school safety by having bulletproof shelters.
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This school in Alabama has a corporal punishment consent form for parents to sign. For ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS.
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Sticking with Alabama, this Alabama school raffled off guns in a school fundraiser.
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Schools have huge differences regarding the quality of the books and supplies. Here are some textbooks from an Oklahoma public school.
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Other schools, like this one in New York, are just throwing away their perfectly good books.
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Teachers are usually responsible for providing their own classroom supplies in any state in the US. Sometimes, schools will do some sort of fundraiser for them — like at this South Dakota school, where teachers competed in football helmets for dollars with their hands tied. I don’t know about you, but this photo feels dystopian to me.
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In other cases, parents are expected to buy all the supplies, like at this school in Ohio.
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Having teachers and parents provide supplies doesn’t always mean the school doesn’t have the money. Sometimes schools are overspending on sports facilities or gadgets. Like this school in Tennessee.
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Conservatives are soooo worried about bathroom safety — and then this is what their school bathrooms look like. This one is in Ohio, which went for Trump in the last election.
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I don’t have the state for this one, but it’s apparently in a top public high school in the Midwest. Maybe this is the kind of bathroom issue we should be focusing on.
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In a happier photo, this public elementary school in Colorado makes sure kids feel welcome.
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On another positive note, public schools in New York are required to have free pads and tampons for fourth grade and up.
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Some schools care about the environment, like this public school in Massachusetts that uses electric schoolbuses.
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Other schools care more about their state economy…and not in a good way. If you go to a public school in Kentucky, you might get coal propaganda in your homework.
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Back during the pandemic, some schools did NOT take social distancing seriously. This photo is from a public high school in Tennessee with no distancing and very few kids in masks.
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This public school in Texas is wildly packed not just during the post-pandemic era but at all times — and it looks like a major safety hazard to me.
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Some schools are teaching things that are vastly out of date. This school in Nevada is using BILL COSBY as an example for Black History Month.
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Other schools are just blatantly teaching using AI.
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Or they’re teaching straight-up religious misinformation, like at this private school in Texas.
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This Florida school is apparently helping eighth graders become eligible for their hunting licenses. (This kid also said they live in a city.)
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On the other hand, some public schools in California teach you actually helpful things, like how to file taxes, and I wish my school did this.
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And finally, I’ve found that different high schools present different after-college options VERY differently. For instance, many high schools really, really push joining the military. This high school in Ohio is constantly advertising joining the army to students, including on their parking passes.
What was your American high school like? Let us know in the comments!
