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That’s a tough question considering the massive variability in school quality and culture at the micro (neighborhood/district) and macro (state/region) levels.

That’s a tough question considering the massive variability in school quality and culture at the micro (neighborhood/district) and macro (state/region) levels. But the short answer is schools are in a constantly losing race to serve all students needs, as guaranteed by the 13th-15th amendments and enforced by civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s (most recently reauthorized as the Every Student Succeeds Act). I’d argue that schools, in an attempt to appease everyone, are designed for no one… modern democracy in action.

troupe 5y ago
> schools are in a constantly losing race to serve all students needs, as guaranteed by the 13th-15th amendments I'm not following how those amendments establish a public school system or control it. But regarding your last sentence, I agree. The concept of "no child left behind" necessarily means you optimize for spending your finite resources in the areas they will have the least return on investment.
- thelock85 5y ago
  My understanding is that there was no legal grounds for giving every student access to a basic education prior to these amendments. The 13th Amendment gave slaves rights as citizens. The 14th Amendment gave freedmen and non-assimilating immigrants rights to claim access to public services (including education) where they’d previously been denied. The 15th amendment guaranteed every man a vote in who gets to administer those public services (unfortunately took another 50 years to include women)… fast forward 100 years and LBJ signed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (among other civil rights legislation) because these constitutional rights were being trodded over in the worst of ways. Title I of ESEA set forth a federal tax base to ensure equal access where states (that previously made most policy decisions) could or would not. So that kinda established a good path that led to todays bad outcomes. I work a lot across U.S. K-12, including with large district superintendents, but I am by no means a policy or reform guru so take this with a grain of salt.
- landemva 5y ago
  Newt Gingrich, as Speaker of the House, was the Republican who enabled the creation of the federal department of education. After that was started, everything went toward the average as measured by standardized tests.
  - cafard 5y ago
    Newt Gingrich was a first-term congressman when the Carter Administration broke up the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. HEW itself dated from the Eisenhower Administration, but there was an existing Office of Education.

troupe 5y ago

> schools are in a constantly losing race to serve all students needs, as guaranteed by the 13th-15th amendments I'm not following how those amendments establish a public school system or control it. But regarding your last sentence, I agree. The concept of "no child left behind" necessarily means you optimize for spending your finite resources in the areas they will have the least return on investment.

thelock85 5y ago
My understanding is that there was no legal grounds for giving every student access to a basic education prior to these amendments. The 13th Amendment gave slaves rights as citizens. The 14th Amendment gave freedmen and non-assimilating immigrants rights to claim access to public services (including education) where they’d previously been denied. The 15th amendment guaranteed every man a vote in who gets to administer those public services (unfortunately took another 50 years to include women)… fast forward 100 years and LBJ signed Elementary and Secondary Education Act (among other civil rights legislation) because these constitutional rights were being trodded over in the worst of ways. Title I of ESEA set forth a federal tax base to ensure equal access where states (that previously made most policy decisions) could or would not. So that kinda established a good path that led to todays bad outcomes. I work a lot across U.S. K-12, including with large district superintendents, but I am by no means a policy or reform guru so take this with a grain of salt.
landemva 5y ago
Newt Gingrich, as Speaker of the House, was the Republican who enabled the creation of the federal department of education. After that was started, everything went toward the average as measured by standardized tests.
- cafard 5y ago
  Newt Gingrich was a first-term congressman when the Carter Administration broke up the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. HEW itself dated from the Eisenhower Administration, but there was an existing Office of Education.