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Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by mbg721 on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @08:55AM (#27603955)
That describes why people pay for private school more than it describes why people would support vouchers. The theory is that "school choice" would mean everyone would flee the worst schools and they'd be compelled to clean up their act or dissolve.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by techrat on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @08:57AM (#27603983)
Ah, you mean like how the "free market" would police itself if they just got rid of those pesky regulations?
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by mbg721 on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @09:42AM (#27604483)
I don't exactly see how that's similar; no one is complaining that their school district is lousy because it's overregulated, they're complaining that it's mismanaged or corrupt and that without something like vouchers, only the wealthy can opt out, and poorer kids get trapped.

Ultimately I think pure free-market school choice in practice would fail not so much because of regulatory capture or a cash-grab, but because changing schools is disruptive and won't fix the problems of students with dysfunctional home lives.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by refurb on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @11:22AM (#27605574)
Better than the current “sunk cost mentality” of public schools where poor schools have more money thrown at them until someone finally realizes its not a money issue.

It’s literally the opposite of efficient use of funds. You want to shift more money to the better run schools not the worst run schools.

[dead]
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by refurb on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @08:32PM (#27612421)
Ahh yes, the hordes of San Francisco Republicans… oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s.
Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by techrat on Thursday June 24, 2021 @05:11AM (#27615397)
Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom.

The city is not the top level when it comes to funding, champ. It takes, literally in this case, a decade to start to undo the damage of Republican misappropriation and sabotage.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by dragonwriter on Thursday June 24, 2021 @05:20AM (#27615441)
> Yet magically, when the state has held a Democratic majority, the first time there's been a budget surplus since the dot-com boom.

To be fair, that's probably as much due to a ballot measure lowering the budget threshold down from a 2/3 supermajority and thereby actually making the state governable.

OTOH, that measure was heavily pushed by the Democratic governor and legislature and opposed by Republicans, so...

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by techrat on Thursday June 24, 2021 @06:13AM (#27615735)
In 1962. The repeal had been knocked down multiple times in proposition attempts thereafter.

Yet Republicans would campaign on preventing the repeal of such a measure and it didn't happen until Democrats had full control of the Capital again. Hmmm, curious. It's almost as if Republicans have a history of being unable or unwilling to work with others.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by dragonwriter on Thursday June 24, 2021 @05:17AM (#27615424)
> oh wait, the city hasn’t had a Republican since the 70’s.

I’m pretty sure there is a word missing in this sentence that radically alters its meaning (I can think of several candidates, either before or after “Republican”, that might make it true), but SF definitely has some Republicans.

Re:Is education no longer the ‘great equalizer’? by renewiltord on Wednesday June 23, 2021 @01:47PM (#27607576)
Haha no. Lots of regulations are just written in vegetable oil. The US regulated marriage between races using anti-miscegenation laws. Written in blood my ass.

There are two kinds of great fools in the world: those who say regulations are always good and those who say regulations are never good.