Official 2020 US Election: Democratic Party Discussion

[Bofferbrauer2]

HylianSwordsman said:

Bofferbrauer2 said:

Thanks for that link, was pretty helpful.

And seriously, charter schools closing in the middle of the school year? Couldn't the state take over running that school at least until the rest of the school year?

Also, schools without classrooms? Seriously what is the board of education doing? Shouldn't they inspect the buildings first before even being allowed to operate?

While I'm certainly no friend of that charter school system, It seems to me like mishandlings at higher levels seem to be the much bigger issue in my opinion. Get more regulation into that system and that would alleviate at least some of the problems, not just at charter schools, but in all schools in general throughout the country.

Yeah, with Buttigeig and Yang as the 2 spanners, since both seem to rise in the polls. Buttigieg in the national ones while Yang is starting to make good impressions in some states.

Indeed, our whole education system has myriad problems, and a lot of it starts from the top. However a lot also starts from other areas, like lack of funding, misappropriation of funding, unequal funding to certain school districts over others, poor pay for teachers failing to attract good teaching talent, and other problems, some very complex and systemic (a school in a poor area may have more dropouts, poorer student performance if students are trying to work to help their families, which isn't the school's fault per se, for instance). Charter schools, when they seem to work well, often only work well because a ton of money is thrown at them and they often select only the students most likely to succeed (some are by lottery, sure, but don't believe anyone who says they all are), sidestepping some of the problems other schools face. For example, with all that extra money, they often get the best teachers because they're willing to pay for talent. If the entire school system were willing to pay for talent, you wouldn't have all the best teachers at one school. The charter school didn't solve the problem, it merely sidestepped it. It's not something you could solve with more charter schools. As John Oliver notes, while the schools can call themselves not-for-profits, often they're connected to a for profit business that siphons a bunch of taxpayer money from the school and makes education more expensive than it needs to be. They get more public funding because of their better track record, which just goes into the pockets of the profiteers at the top, while the rest of the school system suffers. Education should not under any circumstances be a for profit business. It should be an entirely non-profit societal institution.

In Luxembourg we have both private and public schools. However, both have the exact same programm, are under the exact same regulations, have the exact same requirements for teachers, buildings, equipment, funds... The main differences are extra private teaching is a possibility in the private schools, as is staying in a dorm (due to the relatively small distances in Luxembourg, public schools (apart from the university) don't need dorms, everyone just goes home after school. This is mostly used when the parents are traveling for work and can't take care of their kids due to that).

As such, they work in the same manner as private healthcare here: The public system gives a high baseline, and private entities can thrive if they add meaningful stuff on top of it.