Reply to Dumb WaPoo Article on Public Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here is a link to the GAO report on which the article is based.  http://www.gao.gov/assets/680/676745.pdf

As I read it, the report is saying something pretty similar to what OP suggested.  Schools with students that are disproportionately black/Hispanic and low-income do worse on academic achievement measures.  People who can afford to avoid schools with low academic achievement measures will avoid them.  The people who can afford to avoid those schools are more often white.  As a result, segregation increases because of income disparities.  Various school districts have tried different tactics to encourage more racial diversity at schools, by giving extra money and better facilities to the schools that are low-income and black/Hispanic.  But even those extra resources do not lead to much more diversity.

To me, it seems there are essentially two potential solutions:

1. Decide as a society that we value integration/diversity more highly than academic success.  If maximizing integration is the goal, then schools and governments will essentially need to force students to integrate by race and income.  This means upper and middle class students will somehow be forced into schools that are academically weaker, all in the name of increased diversity.  The hope, of course, is that in more integrated/diverse schools, the academic success of wealthier/whiter students will somehow encourage the other students to academic improvement, but I have not seen much evidence that approach works.

2. Decide as a society that we value academic success for each student more highly than integration/diversity.  This means we focus on lifting the academic achievement of each student, regardless of the impact on integration/diversity.  That likely means we have fairly segregated schools in the short term, as we abandon efforts at diversity.  It means lots of education money gets thrown at increasing the academic performance of black/Hispanic and low-income students.  Hopefully, in the long term, it means we succeed in raising the academic performance of the black/Hispanic and low-income groups, so that integration naturally follows.  (Speaking personally, I suspect that this approach would lead to more racial integration over time, but would never lead to much income integration because the wealthy will always have more money to spend on things that lead to improved academic performance.)
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Meanwhile, the Chinese are laughing all the way. Our public schools are largely crap, with the exception of the select few who are put in magnet or G&T programs. Yes, we need socioeconomic diversity but it should not mean that the smarter kids are neglected while the teachers focus on bringing up the bottom of the class.[/quote]

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