Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S...
by dragonwriter on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @02:11PM
(#10228595)
> The students are choosing to attend those charter schools.
Generally not the case. The parents are, usually, choosing.
> People choose things that are better for themselves. Not always, but often enough that you can safely assume it's true for the majority.
You might reasonably make that assumption for cases where the people making the decision are making it for themselves, and with sufficient information and skill to make a reasonable prediction of the utility that will result from each available choice. (A stronger form of this is a central element of rational choice theory, so its common to Econ 101 models of behavior -- and lots of people have internalized these models without understanding the assumptions underpinning them, and how limited they are in the real world.)
I think its far from evident that school choices under the conditions they are actually made meet that description.
Generally not the case. The parents are, usually, choosing.
> People choose things that are better for themselves. Not always, but often enough that you can safely assume it's true for the majority.
You might reasonably make that assumption for cases where the people making the decision are making it for themselves, and with sufficient information and skill to make a reasonable prediction of the utility that will result from each available choice. (A stronger form of this is a central element of rational choice theory, so its common to Econ 101 models of behavior -- and lots of people have internalized these models without understanding the assumptions underpinning them, and how limited they are in the real world.)
I think its far from evident that school choices under the conditions they are actually made meet that description.