re: Meanwhile, Arizona passes bill that gives parents control of the state’s educational funds

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frick the teachers unions

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Second. Call the question.

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You’re not gonna have meaningful change in the schools without meaningful change in the hime.

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Disagree.

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It sounds great but I've never understood the practical application. Assuming the vast majority of people will try to send their students to the best schools how do they determine who gets in?

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They probably end up with a lottery.

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Also, do people understand it's not the schools themselves that are achieving but the people in them? How does this not dilute that system?

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This is only partially true. Schools can make a substantial difference.


We watched this play out in our county when we started a charter school. Soon it had a waiting list, and other schools had to get better to compete. It's not a panacea, but competition is always healthy. In most places public schools have no competition except private schools, and that's obviously not a level playing field.

ETA county, not country

FBI is about to kick some doors in

Explain how?

That’s great - schools and lazy teachers are going to have to up their game to keep their school open and to keep their job

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Then you seem to think that competition doesn't work to produce a better product.

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No but if it's a lottery system I don't see how it creates competition. The crappy schools and teachers will still get students and it will actually make their jobs easier without them improving their performance.

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The only possible issue I see with this is over enrollment/ over crowding and how they go about handling those who get spots at those schools that are wanted by more than they hold. raffle? if you live there, but don't get in because of raffle, that part could get messy

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Shouldn’t be much of an issue. The number of lower income folks who will leave their home district because the family cares THAT much about education will be minimal. Transportation, after school programs/sports, etc. won’t be available or easily accessible if you’re going across town. And even if enrollment does jump enough in Scottsdale (for example) then they pass a bond and build a new school and everyone who lives there votes for it because they will generally vote for and pass any educational bond/levy.

In theory it could be a problem, but that assumes or requires a fairly large number of lower income families to go out of their way to get their kids to a school 45 min away with no school provided transport. I just don’t see that happening.

The number of students, teachers, and schools remains the same. Every kid can't go to the "best schools". The "bad schools" are still going to get students, employ teachers, and administrators.

Someone earlier in the thread said where students go would be determined by a lottery. So let's say in a racially and economically diverse county the lottery sends half the "good students/families" and half the "bad" to the same school. It's going to have an overall negative impact on the school when they get students and families who don't value education in the same way they are accustomed to.

The "bad schools" will get some better students but overall their ability to achieve is going to be significantly hampered by the environment they are in compared to where they were before. It will also make the bad teachers/schools job easier and make them appear more successful even though they didn't do anything better/different.

This is all premised on a true lottery system that someone floated earlier. If that's not how it would work then forget all of that and explain to me how it would.

It seems like some of you guys just think every student in a county/district can just go to the "good school" and business continues as usual.