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I could not agree with this more but I would argue that many parents buy homes in suburbs specifically because the school districts are good -- to put it succin

by ihsw 10y ago

I could not agree with this more but I would argue that many parents buy homes in suburbs specifically because the school districts are good -- to put it succinctly, parents buy access to good schools, not good homes.

josho 10y ago
As someone not in America I find your reality difficult to understand, it's hard to understand how its citizens see so much unnecessary disparity for a public good like education as being normal. Are roads in wealthy neighbourhoods repaired on a different schedule than poor neighbourhoods too?
- ashark 10y ago
  > Are roads in wealthy neighbourhoods repaired on a different schedule than poor neighbourhoods too? School budgets are a small part of the effect, if any. Typically (at least around here) teachers in good districts are paid substantially less than in bad districts, and per-student spending is often lower in good districts than bad. As far as I can tell the good-district/bad-district effect is caused by a series of self-reinforcing loops, one of which is that schools full of the kids of parents who both can and will spend more on housing to be in a good school district tend to be better because they're full of those kids. [EDIT] I took your question about roads to mean whether, broadly, rich areas receive more government spending than poor areas, which is sometimes true for some things but does not seem to be a major driver of school inequality AFAIK
- ihsw 10y ago
  Yes absolutely, as well as snow clearing. Many neighborhoods have the snow shoved to the side of the road to form a wall between sidewalks and roads, whereas other neighborhoods have the snow trucked out.
- hsod 10y ago
  It basically comes down to local tax bases. Schools are funded by local taxes so rich neighborhoods have better schools. This was challenged as a 14th Amendment (Equal Protection) violation in a famous supreme court case, San Antonio v. Rodriguez [0]. The court found that, since education is not a constitutional right, the 14th Amendment was not violated. Put another way, the US Federal (or an individual state) government lacks the authority to dictate how individual municipalities fund their schools systems. That authority would be necessary to enforce the equality you expect. I don't know where you're from, but perhaps your confusion stems from a more homogenous body politic? In America, there is a massive web of overlapping towns, cities, counties, districts, and states, each with their own political authority, and often with massively different demographic makeups. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School_District_v._Rodriguez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School...
brightball 10y ago
Exactly, which is why I always find opposition to vouchers entertaining. The only people who have real choices are the people who can afford to buy housing to pick a school. People flip out when vouchers are mentioned as if giving that choice to everyone is some kinda trick.
- ihsw 10y ago
  Such opposition can usually be boiled down to thinly veiled hubris towards the poor and under-advantaged.

by ihsw 10y ago

josho 10y ago

As someone not in America I find your reality difficult to understand, it's hard to understand how its citizens see so much unnecessary disparity for a public good like education as being normal. Are roads in wealthy neighbourhoods repaired on a different schedule than poor neighbourhoods too?

ashark 10y ago
> Are roads in wealthy neighbourhoods repaired on a different schedule than poor neighbourhoods too? School budgets are a small part of the effect, if any. Typically (at least around here) teachers in good districts are paid substantially less than in bad districts, and per-student spending is often lower in good districts than bad. As far as I can tell the good-district/bad-district effect is caused by a series of self-reinforcing loops, one of which is that schools full of the kids of parents who both can and will spend more on housing to be in a good school district tend to be better because they're full of those kids. [EDIT] I took your question about roads to mean whether, broadly, rich areas receive more government spending than poor areas, which is sometimes true for some things but does not seem to be a major driver of school inequality AFAIK
ihsw 10y ago
Yes absolutely, as well as snow clearing. Many neighborhoods have the snow shoved to the side of the road to form a wall between sidewalks and roads, whereas other neighborhoods have the snow trucked out.
hsod 10y ago
It basically comes down to local tax bases. Schools are funded by local taxes so rich neighborhoods have better schools. This was challenged as a 14th Amendment (Equal Protection) violation in a famous supreme court case, San Antonio v. Rodriguez [0]. The court found that, since education is not a constitutional right, the 14th Amendment was not violated. Put another way, the US Federal (or an individual state) government lacks the authority to dictate how individual municipalities fund their schools systems. That authority would be necessary to enforce the equality you expect. I don't know where you're from, but perhaps your confusion stems from a more homogenous body politic? In America, there is a massive web of overlapping towns, cities, counties, districts, and states, each with their own political authority, and often with massively different demographic makeups. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School_District_v._Rodriguez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School...

brightball 10y ago

Exactly, which is why I always find opposition to vouchers entertaining. The only people who have real choices are the people who can afford to buy housing to pick a school. People flip out when vouchers are mentioned as if giving that choice to everyone is some kinda trick.

ihsw 10y ago
Such opposition can usually be boiled down to thinly veiled hubris towards the poor and under-advantaged.