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False dichotomy. I guess some of those private schools don't teach rudiments of logic and debate. The idea is that we would have more resources and motivation t

False dichotomy. I guess some of those private schools don't teach rudiments of logic and debate. The idea is that we would have more resources and motivation to fix the hellholes, which should never have been allowed to become such in the fist place. Also, not every public school is a hellhole. The public high school in my town beats most elite private schools by any measure. Points to you and your friends for consistency of messaging, though. Guess you all read the same websites.

yellowapple 8y ago
"I guess some of those private schools don't teach rudiments of logic and debate." I actually went to public school all my life (with the exception of a Montessori school in kindergarten, my memories of which are fuzzy at best). Good try, though :) "The idea is that we would have more resources and motivation to fix the hellholes" That's a nice idea in theory, but in practice there will be more motivation to take that money otherwise spent on private schools and put it toward moving into the boundaries of a non-hellhole public school, leaving the hellhole schools to rot since they're still out of sight/mind. Best-case scenario, the rich families do end up pouring more resources/motivation into improving their own local public schools, possibly making a handful of public schools in wealthy areas non-hellholes (or keeping them from becoming hellholes) while - again - leaving the hellhole schools to rot since they're still out of sight/mind. This already happens quite often, and will only intensify. "which should never have been allowed to become such in the fist place" Agreed. "Also, not every public school is a hellhole. The public high school in my town beats most elite private schools by any measure." I never said all public schools are hellholes, and while my high school wasn't super rich/fancy by any means, it wasn't really a hellhole, either.
- notacoward 8y ago
  > I never said all public schools are hellholes It's implied by "abolish the non-hellholes". Since the only thing anyone had suggested was abolishing private schools, this equates "non-hellhole" with "private" as though good public schools didn't exist. If that's not what you meant, you should have (and I believe would have) phrased that differently. > Best-case scenario, the rich families do end up pouring more resources/motivation into improving their own local public schools This is a problem only because (a) we live in a highly income-segregated society and (b) the majority of school funding is from local sources. Fix either of those, and the scenario you predict would not occur.

yellowapple 8y ago

"I guess some of those private schools don't teach rudiments of logic and debate." I actually went to public school all my life (with the exception of a Montessori school in kindergarten, my memories of which are fuzzy at best). Good try, though :) "The idea is that we would have more resources and motivation to fix the hellholes" That's a nice idea in theory, but in practice there will be more motivation to take that money otherwise spent on private schools and put it toward moving into the boundaries of a non-hellhole public school, leaving the hellhole schools to rot since they're still out of sight/mind. Best-case scenario, the rich families do end up pouring more resources/motivation into improving their own local public schools, possibly making a handful of public schools in wealthy areas non-hellholes (or keeping them from becoming hellholes) while - again - leaving the hellhole schools to rot since they're still out of sight/mind. This already happens quite often, and will only intensify. "which should never have been allowed to become such in the fist place" Agreed. "Also, not every public school is a hellhole. The public high school in my town beats most elite private schools by any measure." I never said all public schools are hellholes, and while my high school wasn't super rich/fancy by any means, it wasn't really a hellhole, either.

notacoward 8y ago
> I never said all public schools are hellholes It's implied by "abolish the non-hellholes". Since the only thing anyone had suggested was abolishing private schools, this equates "non-hellhole" with "private" as though good public schools didn't exist. If that's not what you meant, you should have (and I believe would have) phrased that differently. > Best-case scenario, the rich families do end up pouring more resources/motivation into improving their own local public schools This is a problem only because (a) we live in a highly income-segregated society and (b) the majority of school funding is from local sources. Fix either of those, and the scenario you predict would not occur.