OT re value
The advantage of the private school is that it is not delivering a public good, therefore it can be selective and elitist if it chooses to. Public schools cannot make that choice.
Private schools exist as they do because they are perceived to offer public goods; they obtain favorable tax status, they are given funds by donors which are the equivalent of voluntary taxes, and they offer to consumers services at a cost that exceeds the ticket price. If private schools did not perform, they (a) would not receive the donations that make them possible, (b) would not receive the student demand that keep them busy, and (c) would not continue to provide education to members of the community, which ostensibly is the purpose of public schools, too, but in at least some places isn't achieved except by accident.
The fact that public schools have been targeted by people who do not value education and want to force public schools to do things not central to their mission, such as law enforcement or day care, is not a reason we should accept that public schools should be allowed to be turned into animal pens. People who do not conduct themselves properly should be ejected from public schools just as those who do not conduct themselves properly are ejected from courtrooms, public parks, or other institutions and assets offering public benefit. The crime isn't refusing to pour money into broken systems, its allowing people to treat physical presence on an educational campus as a "right" even for those who (a) have no intent to become educated, and (b) actively impair the efforts of others to become educated. The public roads are public, and in general you have a right to be there, but it's an offense to drive on the wrong side, it's an offense to drive (or walk) on the roads (or sidewalks) intoxicated, it's an offense to loiter there for criminal purposes -- why should schools be less protected from being perverted to ends to which they were not purposed by their creators?
At the core, the discussion is about parents and society-at-large not giving a damn about its youth. It is about people who would rather have an extra hundred or thousand back in taxes than to adequately invest in the youth of the nation.
Odd. Reading the first sentence, I imagine the tragedy of allowing people to turn public schools into pens for youth instead of institutions of learning. The second sentence, however, shows you have something entirely different in mind. I remind you that Japan's public education achievements have been made with less per-student expense than the US makes. The problem of public schools' quality is not a result of finances. The problem is the result of a number of factors, including allowing people to force schools to do things they were not meant to do, and preventing schools from using ordinary management methods to achieve their stated educational objectives.
Our youth is well aware of that. You do not go to a school with inadequate textbooks and inadequate other resources without being well aware of the fact that "they" just don't give a damn about you.
Um, you and I might be looking at different school districts, or maybe planets. The problems aren't based on the copyright date of the textbooks, or even the condition the last class of inmates left the textbooks.
It is a high price we are paying for that, and a higher one we will pay in the future
Throwing money into a system might seem appealing, but I submit that if we are already throwing more money at it than some of our more successful competitors, maybe it's the system and not its budget that should first be reformed.
I have never heard so much crap in one off-topic discussion in all my years here
Ditto. Well, almost. Some other contenders come to mind.
I shudder to ask what it is you think extra money will do for public schools if the structural problems are not addressed, other than allow a high-security prison with better-paid guards. No, don't tell me.
Take care,
--Tex.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
