Supreme court and integration

[TheStinger]

ts just one judicial opinion.

[flash9286]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe


Yep. Its not necessarilyabout the money although the money makes a difference in who decides to be a teacher in the first place.

I believe the problem is a matter of social prioritizationof education. If the local social structures including family don't value or prioritze education you end up with a thankless job of trying to motivate a bunch of children who see no value in learning. Its no wonder even great teachers feel they are simply "doing time".

Tax deductions if your kid makes an A

[mrmitchell]

Camden Fairview does this with a neighboring white-flight school district, but it's optional. Any black student here may go there, and until this year any white student there could come here. I think the door coming in closed because our high school failed to meet its goal for standardized tests, and therefore got placed on a Year 1 list by the state. We have so many years to improve, but if we don't make it, the Department of Education gets carte blanche to do as they see fit to improve us.

All parents in the district got a letter that informed them of the poor performance and the requirement by NCLB that students be allowed to attend other passing high schools in the district - which in this case were none, but the option would be there.

Larger districts with more than one high school don't get much benefit out of it either. Schools that fail see the brightest pupils flee for greener pastures. This and myriad other school choice rules let athletes flock to certain schools which become metro area all-star showcases. It hasn't gotten out of hand yet, but that is possible and on the horizon.

Noone really believes the system we have is working, and vouchers and charter schools look to be doubtful too--not to mention political hot potatoes. What is it that the successful schools are doing that most aren't?

[Impaler[WrG]]

The main problems I see with vouchers are having a good universal system of measurment that dosn't act to reinforce the already horrible "teach nothing but the test" mentality that has developed. It used to be that every school esentialy graded on a local curve, Billy got a C, Sussy got an A and their wasn't a scientific global school measuring standard. (SAT tests are nothing more then IQ tests and are only showing which schools got students with naturaly higher IQ's not how well they have developed them). Instituting a realy flexible market oriented school system ware parents realy shop for education requires a good ranking system.

One idea that might make me more inclined to support voucher systems would be if their were a state funded meritocratic bonus. Rather then everyone getting the same value voucher and students being divided basicaly between thouse who's parents can afford to suplement the voucher and thouse that can't. The upper echlon students could earn with their grades a higher value voucher allowing them to get into the upper tier schools. This would be a bit like our college system of merit based scholarships which successfully fill our upper echlon schools with lots of geniuses born of poor parents. It might also act as an incentivating factor for students especialy if the upper echlon schools come with various non-academic perks.

[Ned]

Originally posted by mrmitchell


Noone really believes the system we have is working, and vouchers and charter schools look to be doubtful too--not to mention political hot potatoes. What is it that the successful schools are doing that most aren't?

I think it has to do with the quality of teachers in combination with discipline and standards. But unless there is freedom for students to move to other schools, there will be a little pressure on schools to improve. Schools that do well will grow. Schools that fail their students should themselves fail.

In a voucher system, I would test students based upon standard tests. If the students, on average, fail to learn to the specified standard I, would simply cut off their ability to cash vouchers.

Of course, I think it is critical for a voucher scheme to work that vouchers be cashable at both public and private schools. I further believe that any school that cashes vouchers be subject to affirmative action.

[Ned]

Impaler, I see nothing wrong with having a "basic" voucher, that everybody gets, and other "scholarship" vouchers that can be added based upon academic performance and/or need.