Reply to Another choice school in N Arlington?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When did the shift from capitalism to socialism happen? It's not just Arlington. [/quote]

We're not talking about socialism. 
Educating our children is part of the social contract. Making sure they grow up in stable homes with food on the table is better for everyone. 
But the streetcar got cancelled and all of the promised gentrification went down the tubes with it.
People are starting to look at this Pike neighborhood plan, and ask some important questions. Those neighborhood schools aren't doing so great. What happens if you add more poverty to them? They were supposedly going to be propped up by more middle class density. That hasn't materialized.
How are people living in these areas supposed to be well served if businesses won't invest in the area, because it's super poor?

North Arlington parents aren't divorced from this problem. They helped these policies along. It's time for them to pitch in. Time for them to be part of the solution.

[/quote]

I think it's socialism to expect high-performing kids to be reassigned to shitty schools to prop the other kids up. And that's what's happening everywhere. The problem is that the smart kid has value (high test scores, involved parents), and you're crapping all over them. Public colleges offer incentives to attract motivated students: they get financial assistance or the promise of an outstanding education. With all these choice plans popping up, they get the pleasure of being assigned to a shitty, low-performing school. What's in it for them? Nothing. So they choose private or charters, and everybody loses. Republicans and democrats are both backing this model. Democrats like it for the perceived equity and republicans like it because it encourages the privatization of schools.

Sounds like Arlington is laying the groundwork for a full I controlled choice model. [/quote]

Socialism
?s?SH??liz?m/ [i]noun[/i]: a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Public education in the United States: Historically, the community as a whole (a county or city or town) owns and regulates the public schools. The community governs the production, distribution, and exchange of education.

As you can see, public education in the United States is absolutely socialistic in nature. It has been almost from the very beginning.

Expecting high-performing kids to be reassigned to "shitty" schools is a decision about how to produce, distribute, and exchange education. There's nothing "socialistic" about busing or choice schools or neighborhood schools. Those are simply decisions about how to regulate the school system. What IS socialism is the fact that the schools are owned by the community as a whole and that the community has a right to regulate them as it sees fit.

Do you think Arlington as a county/community should provide education? Do you think it should build schools and hire teachers and "produce" education for its citizens? Do you think the costs of production should be borne by the community via taxes? Then you support socialism, at least in the educational system.

If you don't support socialism in our educational system, you should be arguing that the county should not be providing education at all, but rather that individuals should provide or purchase education for their children as they see fit.[/quote]

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