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IIIIITHE1IIIII said:

Well, congratulations. It looks like you successfully managed to miss my entire point.

Of course people with more money should have exclusive access to more expensive things in life; people who work more or have more prestigious jobs deserve extra cash. When it comes to kids though, it is completely unfair to limit their possibilities by their parents' wallets. Kids don't choose where to be born. In a perfect world everyone would have the same options and then fully deserve whatever education and, later on, job/paycheck they choose to work for.


I would argue that it isn't lack of money that is hurting these children, it is that they're stuck in a school system with shitty teachers and awful parents ...

A woman I dated for awhile had recently moved from teaching in the public system to a private school. She earned less and worked more hours, and the school didn't have money for a basketball program (which she used to coach); but she had smaller class sizes (around 22 compared to 30), all the materials she needed, she was surrounded by good teachers who cared about what they were doing, well beahved students who tried in class, and a high level of parental involvement.

A few weeks back I was reading an article by a teacher who worked on the Native Reserves in Northern Canada about his experiences there. According to him, by the time a child is in grade 3 (about) the only time parents become involved with the school is to accuse them of racism if they fail and/or discipline the student, there are huge discipline problems in the school, and (while there is a massive budget) a large portion of their budget goes towards fixing what the students break. By the time students are in junior high school there is a massive truancy problem, a large portion of the students who show up to class are high (often from huffing gasoline) or drunk, the students (on average) are far behind their grade level in basic skills, and the handful of students who want to be in school are being constantly disturbed by the majority of students who don't. Needless to say, the only teachers who stick around are not interested in making a difference and are mostly going through the motions; and in many cases are stuck doing the job because they're not a good enough teacher to work elsewhere.

While I think that is a very dramatic/unusual example, I think it demonstrates many of the problems that exist in failing public school systems. Washington DC pays $29,000+ per student in their school system and yet has the lowest graduation rate across the country; and this is several times the cost with far worse results of charter schools and private schools. The act of signing your child up for a charter school, or paying for a private school, demonstrates an interest and dedication to education that pushing your child into a failed public school system simply doesn't; and, no matter how much is spent in that public school system it is only going to fail because the parents and teachers in the system are unwilling to make the changes necessary to put it on a successful track.