Do you have a problem with a smart kid living in poverty getting a chance to attend a better school?
I’ll never forget when I was a kid. I must have been about 12 and we had this kid in class. He always came to school kind of grubby and his clothes were huge on him and he was pathetically skinny, but he was the smartest kid in class. He was a math wiz. I’ve always wondered whatever became of him.
I don’t have a problem with giving a voucher to a deserving kid. I do have a problem when it becomes an unearned quota. There is a huge difference.
I think kids like that end up learning on their own anyway since their interest is so high in a particular area. He may not set the world on fire - he could be a math teacher and the best math teacher any could be. That’s success to me.
It brings to mind the guy behind me in grammar school who was not shabbily dressed at all. Clean/neat. Math was certainly his subject but he never paid attention. He would hide behind me and he would draw battleships and I could hear him blasting one off and then the other. He was amusing himself as he was totally bored with the class and probably could teach it just as good as the teacher if not better. On our weekly test he always scored a 100. I know the teacher knew he wasn’t paying attention but thankfully she wasn’t so dumb to call him on it. He scoring 100 says - he’s way ready for more difficult teaching than she could/would provide. Wonder what he is doing now.
Another classmate, a girl who was super bright and we all agreed she must have a photographic memory but never asked her. Years later I learned she studied Russian and became a Russian interpreter. Her parents were from Spain and often wondered how do people end up choosing their careers - something like that which is out of the ordinary.