How Turning the Public School System into a Market Undermines Democracy

[Igel]

12. I'd quit.

My district's buildings are mostly less than 8 years old. Lots of technology. Teachers are qualified. Most care.

It's not so much the kids, although the ones in this district cause the teachers to have frequent melt downs and spend a lot of time controlling their classrooms. All wasted time. The kids learn behavior and attitudes at home. They study--or not--at home.

I moved my kid to a public school built in the '60s. Funding's the same. Teachers are more experienced, but many of them got that experience in the district I live in. It's a much better school.

Money matters slightly. Most teachers these days are trained well enough that increased training won't help. School buildings don't matter much. We're testing to the curriculum (and the test is based on the curriculum, so "teaching to the test" is roughly the same thing as teaching to the curriculum, with some biases).

Ultimately half of what predicts academic success is the parents. Forcing politicians' kids to go to bad schools won't change the parents. Most other things that can be done have been done. What's helped the most in the last 8 years where I live are parent classes: They get the parents to come in so they can train the parents, even a little, on how to raise kids that are at least moderate achievers. Most parents find this humiliating.

As though having failed kids is a point of honor. Well, the parents do blame everybody else, so I guess they duck blame.