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What you're suggesting is building a system that actively punishes parents who are too busy to a ton of research because they're working multiple jobs, taking c

What you're suggesting is building a system that actively punishes parents who are too busy to a ton of research because they're working multiple jobs, taking care of sick family members, etc. Characterizing people who don't have time to do this as merely "not picky" is ignoring and punishing a huge segment of the population.

syrrim 7y ago
The principle of skin in the game doesn't merely improve the situation for picky people, it brings up the average improving the situation for everyone. If picky people at large boycott a particular school, everyone who is friends with these people will boycott it by association, and it will lose too many students to remain solvent. If picky people prefer giving their business to certain proprietors, those proprietors will open more schools, increasing the likelihood that a person choosing schools using a dart board will strike such a school. Your characterization of the difficulty of choosing a school is overdramatic. A person could devote fifteen minutes to googling "best schools in {area}", maybe even turning up a government sponsored list. If they ever notice the chosen school is bad, say from complaints of their ward or from bad grades, they would switch schools, improving the situation via negativa.
- swivelmaster 7y ago
  Googling it? The whole point of this thread is that that can be gamed. Do you want to reward schools for having the best SEO? Or for doing a better job of incentivizing people to review their school on whatever web site?
  - syrrim 7y ago
    Google "best restaurants" and you'll find a list of decent restaurants. They may not be the best restaurants, but they also won't suck. That brings us par with the status quo, from 15 minutes of work.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - swivelmaster 7y ago
      It only takes one meal to know if a restaurant is good. It takes a lot more than that to know if a school is good.
tracker1 7y ago
I've often thought it would be a great idea to allow for parents to work one day a month at their child's school. This would put more parents in the circle. I think it would take time and some training to get to a good place on this, but would allow for a lot more insight and probably increase interaction dramatically. One or two more sets of eyes in most classrooms each day, more people to help answer questions, etc. Far fewer WTF moments with some schools.

syrrim 7y ago

The principle of skin in the game doesn't merely improve the situation for picky people, it brings up the average improving the situation for everyone. If picky people at large boycott a particular school, everyone who is friends with these people will boycott it by association, and it will lose too many students to remain solvent. If picky people prefer giving their business to certain proprietors, those proprietors will open more schools, increasing the likelihood that a person choosing schools using a dart board will strike such a school. Your characterization of the difficulty of choosing a school is overdramatic. A person could devote fifteen minutes to googling "best schools in {area}", maybe even turning up a government sponsored list. If they ever notice the chosen school is bad, say from complaints of their ward or from bad grades, they would switch schools, improving the situation via negativa.

swivelmaster 7y ago
Googling it? The whole point of this thread is that that can be gamed. Do you want to reward schools for having the best SEO? Or for doing a better job of incentivizing people to review their school on whatever web site?
- syrrim 7y ago
  Google "best restaurants" and you'll find a list of decent restaurants. They may not be the best restaurants, but they also won't suck. That brings us par with the status quo, from 15 minutes of work.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - swivelmaster 7y ago
    It only takes one meal to know if a restaurant is good. It takes a lot more than that to know if a school is good.

tracker1 7y ago

I've often thought it would be a great idea to allow for parents to work one day a month at their child's school. This would put more parents in the circle. I think it would take time and some training to get to a good place on this, but would allow for a lot more insight and probably increase interaction dramatically. One or two more sets of eyes in most classrooms each day, more people to help answer questions, etc. Far fewer WTF moments with some schools.