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When I moved to the US, this was one of the things that surprised me the most. I found it really odd that my coworkers would look for homes based on how good th

When I moved to the US, this was one of the things that surprised me the most. I found it really odd that my coworkers would look for homes based on how good the schools were in that neighborhood. The fact that all kids don't get equal opportunity makes it feel like a very broken society.

dorchadas 6y ago
I agree. I also think it fosters a sense of anti-intellectualism in those schools that are poorer as well. I've noticed the difference in my hometown (where I now teach) in the 10 years since I've graduated. I've talked about it with another teacher who went to school there as well (I will say, that's one thing they're good at; they usually hire locals, for better or worse). My mom was a teacher there for 30 years as well, as she's seen it too. I don't live in the district I teach in, but I've already said that if I'm still teaching there (a big if) and have kids (another big if), I won't send them there if they're academically inclined. The school is routinely trying to gut AP classes in favor of "dual credit" (which is a joke) and they're removing normal accelerated classes for increased 'rigor' in others; which doesn't happen, as you get accelerated kids mixed in with kids in a collaborative class because the guidance doesn't care enough to separate them, and then we're also forced to cater to the lowest common denominator by administration as well... And "differentiated learning" just basically becomes "Oh, you're smart, here's another worksheet". It's, sadly, becoming a race to the bottom, and it's something the more wealthy schools in the area I live at wouldn't have.
tyoma 6y ago
While the disparity seems like its not at the same level, schools even in fairly egalitarian European countries are not all equal. For an example, see the discussion about the Amsterdam school lottery (https://medium.com/social-choice/why-a-dutch-court-stopped-high-school-students-from-exchanging-schools-1315303a48b6 https://medium.com/social-choice/why-a-dutch-court-stopped-h...).
lotsofpulp 6y ago
>I found it really odd that my coworkers would look for homes based on how good the schools were in that neighborhood. It's not the schools they are looking for, it's neighborhoods where the proportion of families that have parents who are well educated and higher earning, in order to put their kids in an environment with a higher proportion of kids who have more resourceful parents. Any school with motivated kids with stable home environments will be "good schools". And since schools draw their pool of students from the neighborhood, it eventually turns into a system where parents will cluster together by income, as income determines how much of a mortgage you can afford.
rayiner 6y ago
That has nothing to do with school funding. Your coworkers were looking for neighborhoods where they don’t have to send their kids to school alongside black or Hispanic kids. Here in Maryland, my exurban county spends $14,400 per student per year. Baltimore spends $17,500, despite having substantially lower cost of living. (Even excluding federal funding, Baltimore spends $2,000 more.) The rich suburbs around DC spend $16,900. The rich Virginia county where I grew up, on the other side of DC, spends $15,300. DC itself spends $21,000 per student. DC also has some of the highest teacher salaries in the country. It has brand new, beautiful LEED Gold high schools your coworkers would never send their kids to because those schools are 99% black. Inside DC itself, schools are funded equally, but houses in neighborhoods districts to majority white schools cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more. (When we talk about “systemic racism” in this country, that’s what it means. It means that, even in blue states that are willing to provide ample funding to majority-minority schools, white and Asian parents would rather spend hundreds of thousands more on housing to avoid sending their kids to those well funded schools.)

dorchadas 6y ago

I agree. I also think it fosters a sense of anti-intellectualism in those schools that are poorer as well. I've noticed the difference in my hometown (where I now teach) in the 10 years since I've graduated. I've talked about it with another teacher who went to school there as well (I will say, that's one thing they're good at; they usually hire locals, for better or worse). My mom was a teacher there for 30 years as well, as she's seen it too. I don't live in the district I teach in, but I've already said that if I'm still teaching there (a big if) and have kids (another big if), I won't send them there if they're academically inclined. The school is routinely trying to gut AP classes in favor of "dual credit" (which is a joke) and they're removing normal accelerated classes for increased 'rigor' in others; which doesn't happen, as you get accelerated kids mixed in with kids in a collaborative class because the guidance doesn't care enough to separate them, and then we're also forced to cater to the lowest common denominator by administration as well... And "differentiated learning" just basically becomes "Oh, you're smart, here's another worksheet". It's, sadly, becoming a race to the bottom, and it's something the more wealthy schools in the area I live at wouldn't have.

tyoma 6y ago

While the disparity seems like its not at the same level, schools even in fairly egalitarian European countries are not all equal. For an example, see the discussion about the Amsterdam school lottery (https://medium.com/social-choice/why-a-dutch-court-stopped-high-school-students-from-exchanging-schools-1315303a48b6 https://medium.com/social-choice/why-a-dutch-court-stopped-h...).

lotsofpulp 6y ago

>I found it really odd that my coworkers would look for homes based on how good the schools were in that neighborhood. It's not the schools they are looking for, it's neighborhoods where the proportion of families that have parents who are well educated and higher earning, in order to put their kids in an environment with a higher proportion of kids who have more resourceful parents. Any school with motivated kids with stable home environments will be "good schools". And since schools draw their pool of students from the neighborhood, it eventually turns into a system where parents will cluster together by income, as income determines how much of a mortgage you can afford.

rayiner 6y ago

That has nothing to do with school funding. Your coworkers were looking for neighborhoods where they don’t have to send their kids to school alongside black or Hispanic kids. Here in Maryland, my exurban county spends $14,400 per student per year. Baltimore spends $17,500, despite having substantially lower cost of living. (Even excluding federal funding, Baltimore spends $2,000 more.) The rich suburbs around DC spend $16,900. The rich Virginia county where I grew up, on the other side of DC, spends $15,300. DC itself spends $21,000 per student. DC also has some of the highest teacher salaries in the country. It has brand new, beautiful LEED Gold high schools your coworkers would never send their kids to because those schools are 99% black. Inside DC itself, schools are funded equally, but houses in neighborhoods districts to majority white schools cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more. (When we talk about “systemic racism” in this country, that’s what it means. It means that, even in blue states that are willing to provide ample funding to majority-minority schools, white and Asian parents would rather spend hundreds of thousands more on housing to avoid sending their kids to those well funded schools.)