If America were serious about fixing the troubled parts of its education system, then we would be having a fundamentally different conversation.Gross misdiagnosis, fool’s errand recommendation.We wouldn’t be talking about budget austerity — we would be talking about raising public revenues to fund special tutoring, childcare, basic health programs and other so-called wraparound services at low-income schools.
We wouldn’t only be looking to make sure that schools in high-poverty districts finally receive the same amount of public money as schools in wealthy neighborhoods — we would make sure high-poverty districts actually receive more funds than rich districts because combating poverty is such a resource-intensive endeavor.
The rich school isn’t rich because it has money, the rich school is rich because it has the backing of the parents of the students. The poor school is poor first because the parents of its students didn’t do well in school, and the don’t expect and demand that their children do well in school, either. Low expectations will stultify the progress of almost anyone.
The more you try to rob Peter to pay for Paul’s education, the more Paul learns that robbing Peter is the path to success - and the more Paul learns not to be like Peter.
All public schools are child abuse.