3 ms·

Ah, you mean like how the "free market" would police itself if they just got rid of those pesky regulations?

mbg721 5y ago
I don't exactly see how that's similar; no one is complaining that their school district is lousy because it's overregulated, they're complaining that it's mismanaged or corrupt and that without something like vouchers, only the wealthy can opt out, and poorer kids get trapped. Ultimately I think pure free-market school choice in practice would fail not so much because of regulatory capture or a cash-grab, but because changing schools is disruptive and won't fix the problems of students with dysfunctional home lives.
refurb 5y ago
Better than the current “sunk cost mentality” of public schools where poor schools have more money thrown at them until someone finally realizes its not a money issue. It’s literally the opposite of efficient use of funds. You want to shift more money to the better run schools not the worst run schools.
- techrat 5y ago
  Decades of Republican ratfucking the education system isn't a reason to add more overhead to a starved system by privatizing it. > Better than... We know what deregulation does. Texas' energy issues is a great example. People forget that regulations don't just magically exist to inconvenience the glorious free market... Regulations are written in blood.
  - renewiltord 5y ago
    Haha no. Lots of regulations are just written in vegetable oil. The US regulated marriage between races using anti-miscegenation laws. Written in blood my ass. There are two kinds of great fools in the world: those who say regulations are always good and those who say regulations are never good.
  - refurb 5y ago
    Ahh yes, the hordes of San Francisco Republicans… oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s.
    - techrat 5y ago
      Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom. The city is not the top level when it comes to funding, champ. It takes, literally in this case, a decade to start to undo the damage of Republican misappropriation and sabotage.
      - dragonwriter 5y ago
        > Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom. To be fair, that's probably as much due to a ballot measure lowering the budget threshold down from a 2/3 supermajority and thereby actually making the state governable. OTOH, that measure was heavily pushed by the Democratic governor and legislature and opposed by Republicans, so...
        techrat 5y ago
        In 1962. The repeal had been knocked down multiple times in proposition attempts thereafter. Yet Republicans would campaign on preventing the repeal of such a measure and it didn't happen until Democrats had full control of the Capital again. Hmmm, curious. It's almost as if Republicans have a history of being unable or unwilling to work with others.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s. I’m pretty sure there is a word missing in this sentence that radically alters its meaning (I can think of several candidates, either before or after “Republican”, that might make it true), but SF definitely has some Republicans.

I don't exactly see how that's similar; no one is complaining that their school district is lousy because it's overregulated, they're complaining that it's mismanaged or corrupt and that without something like vouchers, only the wealthy can opt out, and poorer kids get trapped. Ultimately I think pure free-market school choice in practice would fail not so much because of regulatory capture or a cash-grab, but because changing schools is disruptive and won't fix the problems of students with dysfunctional home lives.

refurb 5y ago

Better than the current “sunk cost mentality” of public schools where poor schools have more money thrown at them until someone finally realizes its not a money issue. It’s literally the opposite of efficient use of funds. You want to shift more money to the better run schools not the worst run schools.

techrat 5y ago
Decades of Republican ratfucking the education system isn't a reason to add more overhead to a starved system by privatizing it. > Better than... We know what deregulation does. Texas' energy issues is a great example. People forget that regulations don't just magically exist to inconvenience the glorious free market... Regulations are written in blood.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  Haha no. Lots of regulations are just written in vegetable oil. The US regulated marriage between races using anti-miscegenation laws. Written in blood my ass. There are two kinds of great fools in the world: those who say regulations are always good and those who say regulations are never good.
- refurb 5y ago
  Ahh yes, the hordes of San Francisco Republicans… oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s.
  - techrat 5y ago
    Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom. The city is not the top level when it comes to funding, champ. It takes, literally in this case, a decade to start to undo the damage of Republican misappropriation and sabotage.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      > Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom. To be fair, that's probably as much due to a ballot measure lowering the budget threshold down from a 2/3 supermajority and thereby actually making the state governable. OTOH, that measure was heavily pushed by the Democratic governor and legislature and opposed by Republicans, so...
      - techrat 5y ago
        In 1962. The repeal had been knocked down multiple times in proposition attempts thereafter. Yet Republicans would campaign on preventing the repeal of such a measure and it didn't happen until Democrats had full control of the Capital again. Hmmm, curious. It's almost as if Republicans have a history of being unable or unwilling to work with others.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s. I’m pretty sure there is a word missing in this sentence that radically alters its meaning (I can think of several candidates, either before or after “Republican”, that might make it true), but SF definitely has some Republicans.