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>maintaining their privilege You mean worked hard to provide their kids with a better future. The parents who are gung ho about their kid's education are usua

>maintaining their privilege You mean worked hard to provide their kids with a better future. The parents who are gung ho about their kid's education are usually the new upper middle class type. The biggest privilege these kids have is that their parents care about their education. Money does not provide much of an advantage. The Internet has been a great equalizer in terms of educational resources.

jonathankoren 11y ago
> The biggest privilege these kids have is that their parents care about their education. Money does not provide much of an advantage. Since when did school quality and neighborhood income stop correlating? When did private schools become free? When did after school tutoring and test prep programs become free to attend and provide free transport to and on demand? All of these things take money, and all of them a positively correlated with achievement, and quite out of reach of poor people.
- Houshalter 10y ago
  Correlation isn't causation though. Yes kids from private schools do better. But they might have done well in public schools too.
  - jonathankoren 10y ago
    I wasn't trying to say that private schools are always better, but they do provide an escape hatch if you live in a place with a crappy assigned public school. An escape hatch that is only available if you have the ability to pay, and perhaps pay a lot. I haven't done a lot of shopping for private schools, but BASIS Silicon Valley is $25,000 per student per year. That's a lot. Two kids cost $46,000 per year. That's insane.
  - jonathankoren 10y ago
    I wasn't trying to say that private schools are always better, but they do provide an escape hatch if you live in a place with a crappy assigned public school. An escape hatch that is only available if you have the ability to pay, and perhaps pay a lot. I haven't done a lot of shopping for private schools, but BASIS Silicon Valley is $25,000 per student per year. That's a lot. Two kids cost $46,000 per year. That's insane.

jonathankoren 11y ago

> The biggest privilege these kids have is that their parents care about their education. Money does not provide much of an advantage. Since when did school quality and neighborhood income stop correlating? When did private schools become free? When did after school tutoring and test prep programs become free to attend and provide free transport to and on demand? All of these things take money, and all of them a positively correlated with achievement, and quite out of reach of poor people.

Houshalter 10y ago
Correlation isn't causation though. Yes kids from private schools do better. But they might have done well in public schools too.
- jonathankoren 10y ago
  I wasn't trying to say that private schools are always better, but they do provide an escape hatch if you live in a place with a crappy assigned public school. An escape hatch that is only available if you have the ability to pay, and perhaps pay a lot. I haven't done a lot of shopping for private schools, but BASIS Silicon Valley is $25,000 per student per year. That's a lot. Two kids cost $46,000 per year. That's insane.
- jonathankoren 10y ago
  I wasn't trying to say that private schools are always better, but they do provide an escape hatch if you live in a place with a crappy assigned public school. An escape hatch that is only available if you have the ability to pay, and perhaps pay a lot. I haven't done a lot of shopping for private schools, but BASIS Silicon Valley is $25,000 per student per year. That's a lot. Two kids cost $46,000 per year. That's insane.