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    tektwoHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:29am

    Doesn't the US spend on average more per student and more per teacher on primary education than most developed nations?

    Seems like money is not the issue, it's the parents and culture of education priority. Communities who place a higher importance on education do better than those who don't. Even the worst and poorest schools in the US outspend most Western nations while doing so poorly. Why is that?

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      samarkandtektwo
      2/06/14 10:37am

      I don't know the veracity of that statistic, but I do know that the US spends less than other developed countries on a social safety net that would ensure those children arrive at school ready to learn.

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      PipeSmokingGaltektwo
      2/06/14 10:37am
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    Taint NuttinHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 11:06am

    Brought to you by the same social engineers who gave us Piedmont, CA, and made East Palo Alto its own separate town...

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      dankedankeTaint Nuttin
      2/06/14 11:10am

      Thank you! I hate when Gawker (or anyone) writes articles make it seem this is a southern, conservative, backward thing.

      My experience dealing with school districts in California is that "white, liberal, tolerant" blue staters can be just as bad, if not worse. Most of those who advocate this in California are not the crazy religious types or "overt" racists. They just homeschool.

      It's a class issue EVERYWHERE in this country.

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      Taint Nuttindankedanke
      2/06/14 11:18am

      A discussion with my boss about Richard Sherman eventually wound it's way towards the big gap in SF's touchy-feely armor- the racism towards black people. He said a family member bought a house near Geary & 24th in the early 70's, and it was written into the deal that they could not sell the property to a black family.

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    trudibell_Hamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:23am

    This is business as usual for Atlanta.

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      MargeDeantrudibell_
      2/06/14 10:29am

      Also business as usual in Houston and Dallas.

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      trudibell_MargeDean
      2/06/14 10:31am

      And most of the Chicago metro area too.

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    phunkshunHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:20am

    Other than the reasons stated it's also inextricably linked with property taxes which muddles the whole process even more along class lines.

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      yaburnerphunkshun
      2/06/14 10:41am

      Exactly, it baffles me that we continue to link school funding with property taxes. What a ridiculous way to fund schools. On the other hand, it kind of ensures that poor people get lesser educations, so maybe it is a feature not a bug for the elitist who run the country...

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      phunkshunyaburner
      2/06/14 10:49am

      It's not baffling, it's working as intended. This is why people in Scarsdale can grouse about having perfectly manicured medians that the town has to upkeep while people are getting shot in Mount Vernon.

      It makes perfect sense for the way we live and what we aspire to as a society.

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    GoalieLaxHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 12:12pm

    for someone who works to make a wealthy white man even richer and can afford to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, you sure do wealth bat a lot.

    how much do you make a gawker? what did your parents make when you were growing up? where did you go to for primary and secondary schools? what is your personal debt profile? what does your investment portfolio look like? who pays for your health care? do you have a 401k that is matched?

    you know - in the name of full disclosure

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      Jeff_bottGoalieLax
      2/06/14 12:43pm

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_homine…

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      GoalieLaxJeff_bott
      2/06/14 12:56pm

      i agree - he's a serial ad hominemer when it comes to affluent people

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    gocallyourmomHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:25am

    I suggest we follow their lead on a federal level and get Louisiana off the welfare it receives from the hard working, job creating, blue states.

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      PipeSmokingGalgocallyourmom
      2/06/14 11:10am

      What effect would that have on the wealthy parents in this article or the wealthy in Louisiana overall? It would adversely affect the dwindling middle class and impoverished...yet again.

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      sheriffjoegocallyourmom
      2/06/14 11:16am

      Within the surrounding states (Texas, Arkansas, Miss., Alabama, Oklahoma) Louisiana votes more liberal than the rest. One problem is that casino tax money is not being well spent amongst the education system. I'm sure a bulk of it is going to pay LSU's coaching staff. When they note how much Les has done for the school they fail to acknowledge his lack of discipline towards his players' criminal activities. Damn this state is screwed! This is the reasoning why a lot of people want to send there kids to private schools, not for the religion but the education. Bobby Jindal is holding the teachers accountable for kids performances in these urban schools, firing these teachers if the student body is failing. Teachers don't stand a chance when you don't get adequate funding to get the necessary teaching supplies. This is why specialty programs (Gifted and Talented) are placed in the failing schools so these kids increase the schools average. But at least there's Mardi Gras, right?

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    P-as-in-PsychologyHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:25am

    This problem exists in Georgia, too. But here, the wealthy parents can write a petition directly to a state committee (bypassing local school board approval) that will place a charter school in their county. The charter school can require entrance exams, service hours from parents and homemade lunches, basically ruling out underprivileged kids from attending. Oh, and if a charter school is placed, it can allocate as much money as the state committee deems necessary from the local school district WITHOUT INCREASING TAXES OR FUNDING.

    Isn't de facto segregation great?

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      PeroxyacidP-as-in-Psychology
      2/06/14 11:09am

      They can require entrance exams? I thought entrance exams were the only thing charters were not allowed to do in their efforts to keep kids out. Are those for placement rather than admissions?

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      P-as-in-PsychologyPeroxyacid
      2/06/14 10:24pm

      Nope, they can require them. In fact, state republicans passed an amendment to the Ga. constitution last year to allow exactly that.

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    PeroxyacidHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 11:07am

    The main resource that higher-income parents bring to school districts isn't their tax money, it's their presence/involvement. And the main concern that these parents have isn't that their tax money is being used on other people's kids, it's that they dislike the peer culture/school culture of schools with predominantly poor, black student bodies. I don't think that makes this whole thing any better or worse, but treating it as a funding issue really misses the point.

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      WhatthefoxsaysPeroxyacid
      2/06/14 12:06pm

      That's not entirely true. Here in NJ, there are school districts with 4 or 5 schools for each level (hs, jr high, elementary), and the students don't mix except in sports. Yet that hasn't stopped parents from the wealthiest school towns from trying to form their own district for the sole purpose of keeping their tax dollars in their backyards.

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      YetAnotherFuckingNamePeroxyacid
      2/06/14 12:11pm

      Why do you think poor parents can't be as involved?

      Please remember that these parents come from families that thought of blacks as a physical contaminant.

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    RussianistHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:23am

    Given the American view of things ("states' rights!") the best we can hope for is for property tax revenues to be pooled at the state level and then re-distributed to districts and public schools on a strict per-student basis. That we can't even achieve that common-sense solution indicates what you're up against when you call for federal funding.

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      BouvOnTheMoveRussianist
      2/06/14 10:43am

      This happens to an extent in Vermont. There was a law passed in the late 90's called "Act 60" that set about trying to equalize school funding. It'a not perfect, but it's better than what most states have.

      It's also the reason that the ski-town of Killington has been trying to "secede" to New Hampshire for the past ten years. Because everyone knows how low property taxes in New Hampshire are, right?

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    keeplosingburnersHamilton Nolan
    2/06/14 10:21am

    "Wouldn't it make more sense to just fund school districts federally, according to a rational formula based on need, rather than on how rich the parents are in the surrounding neighborhoods?"

    Yes. At this point I'd settle for a half-assed compromise, too. Conservatives hate the US Dept. of Education and standardized education? OK, fine...Allocate federal funds to state agencies according to need, with the requirement that the states also disburse internally according to need. Pay for it with a slight tax increase somewhere at the federal level; I don't particularly care ware.

    Then let local school districts have it out with the courts over the inevitable separation of church and state issues that would come up almost immediately after higher government relaxes some of its regulation.

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