Are public schools still the great equalizer?

I agree. When my PTA can fundraise $45,000 in 6 months to buy iPads and additional programs for an elementary school and the PTA down the street can't even get 50%+ parents to pay $10 membership fee, there's going to be inequality.

Absolutely not and it is a great shame for our nation.

So are we fully privatizing here or just giving a few vouchers out?

If we are going full-scale Soviet asset auction, how are we going to decide who to sell our public education assets to?

quote:

---

and I am not sure privatization is as bad a thing as democrats assert.

---

how would privatization help?

I agree that public schools are extremely unequal, but more privatization would be awful

quote:

---

And for the folks who will reply that this is a problem with culture, not the school, then I still hold that choice will save the ones with potential.

---

Bad schools only add to the shitty environments. There's this awful cycle where a bad school will cause a kid to drop out, then they'll most likely live in the same area of the school and have kids with shitty attitudes because their parents never did anything with their lives, partly due to the shitty schooling they got. Then those kids will go on and do the same thing.

By how much will taxes have to be increased to pay for these vouchers?

At any school, there is a divergence of commitments. At the worst public school in America the top student is being told they are special and will become tomorrow's leaders, likewise the worst student in Americas best public school is being told they are special because they go to Americas best public school.

The difference is the scale of the top and bottom.

To add further to the discussion, the private school system has taken away the peaks from the public school system.

When I was in public high school in the 80's I could legitimately say that that our best would match the private schools best. I can not say that now. Current high school private programs in Dallas such as Hockaday, ESD, St. Marks, and Ursuline plant a significant percentage of people in the Ivy's and top 10% universities in the US and overseas.

As a public school teacher in a high poverty rural area, I agree with your statement that zip code determines education quality. Generally speaking, you can put the same teacher in four different zip codes and get four different student progress results. School begins for us next week. I literally beg my students' parents to be involved with their child's education. With involved parents and a good teacher a child can be successful in any zip code, but if either of those are missing, only the most motivated and determined student can achieve. It's more frustrating every year.

Crimson White, since you are a teacher, what do you think about magnet schools?

I'm very much in favor of anything that helps our students, and I believe magnet schools do that. The best and brightest have the right to attend a school that targets their ability levels and interests and reduces the distractions of bad behavior and/or apathy.