Where seniors at my high school are going

[Kuciwalker]

Being smarter generally comes from being affluent, rather than causing it. All other things equal is rather a significant qualifier... as they never are.

There's an innate component of intelligence as well as a learned one.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

But it's still a racket. People whose parents can afford things like private tutoring and schools that focus on college application preparation have a massive advantage over those that don't.

I go to a public school. As in, completely free. We have a fair number of lower-income people, though probably no one who is really poor.

Yes, but IIRC your school funding model is a lot different from the one that operates in, say, New Zealand.

You can't honestly tell me that a school in inner city Detroit is as well-funded as yours.

[Kuciwalker]

Actually, my school doesn't get nearly enough money from the school board - they don't like us. We have to beg for money from the state every year.

[pchang]

Originally posted by Agathon


Yes, but IIRC your school funding model is a lot different from the one that operates in, say, New Zealand.

You can't honestly tell me that a school in inner city Detroit is as well-funded as yours.

Actually, spending on schools is largely normalized by the state to equalize spending per student. Then, the state usually provides extra money to low income schools to try and boost their performance. In California, the schools in rich areas actually get less money per student than those in the inner city. However, those optional fundraisers I mentioned earlier allow the schools in rich areas to increase their spending to the level of those inner city schools.

[Bosh]

The sheer amount of money and time spent by some people on trying to get their kids into an Ivy League school is mind boggling. There are industries supported by this phenomenon.

Yup, like my job for example
Some parents spend thousands and thousands of dollars on my company for after school/vacation classes, tutoring, college counseling for hire, essay editing etc. etc. etc.

[SpencerH]

In greater Birmingham (so comparing predominantly black populations with predominantly white) there are huge discrepancies between the quality of the schools despite that the funding is similar. In fact such discrepancies even exist within the Birmingham school system (which is predominantly black). Funding is a factor in modern education IMO but it is not the reason why many "inner city" schools fail. "Poor funding" is merely the liberal scapegoat for their own failures (since most if not all city school boards are overwhelmingly liberal-democrat).