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A comment on Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Cautionary Tale. Parent comment

Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by rayiner on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @11:50AM (#21649499)
This is why school choice is a key social justice issue of our time. Parents’ ability to control the environment their kids go to school in shouldn’t be based on where they can afford to live.

Above a certain threshold, it’s not a matter of resources or teacher quality. Baltimore schools spend as much per student as the wealthy suburban counties around it (and cost of living in Baltimore is cheaper).[1] Nobody from Montgomery County would send their kids to Baltimore public schools, but a ton of parents in Baltimore would love to send their kids to Montgomery County schools, but can’t afford $700k+ for a starter home.

[1] https://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2019/05/21/baltim...

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Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by SilasX on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @12:42PM (#21650051)
>This is why school choice is a key social justice issue of our time

And it's one I have the least hope to see changed, for exactly this reason:

>a ton of parents in Baltimore would love to send their kids to Montgomery County schools, but can’t afford $700k+ for a starter home.

Changing things would require middle/upper-middle class voters to destroy the very thing responsible for half the value of their biggest asset. It's a self-reinforcing problem.

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Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by fzil on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @12:24PM (#21649856)
> Above a certain threshold, it’s not a matter of resources or teacher quality.

Why would Baltimore parents want to send their kids to Montgomery County, if not for better teachers and more resources?

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Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by larnmar on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @05:04PM (#21652631)
For access to a better peer group. That’s the theme of this thread — teachers and resources don’t have that big an influence, but peers do.
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Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by burlesona on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @12:12PM (#21649721)
Serious question, why is this being downvoted? Seems a reasonable quality comment to me.
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Re:Teacher Effects on Student Achievement and Height: A Caut... by smogcutter on Wednesday November 27, 2019 @12:22PM (#21649829)
Because it’s way off topic, and replying would just start a pointless flame war about school choice.
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