Megan McArdle presents a counterargument to a video arguing the thesis that the middle class is doomed by bidding wars over houses that entitle your children to a slot at a top k-12 school.
Ms. McArdle believes that thesis is wrong, but what if it weren’t? Wouldn’t the obvious solution be some way of decoupling school markets from housing markets (vouchers and magnet schools are two obvious possibilities, but there are others)?
[The details of McArdle's counterarguments are coming as a series of posts, which are only just beginning to go up as I write this. Check her front page if you're interested.]
{ 9 comments }
I’m not hard to convince; it was the rejection of choice in education that was the final severing point, intellectually, in my relationship with the Democratic Party. I’m still pissed at them about it, since their arguments about education choice are as flat, stupid, and empty as anything in modern politics.
As you can tell, I’m just a bit emotional about the subject. After all my years as a loyal Democrat, when I finally realized what hypocrites they were and how much they were doing to keep poor kids poor and uneducated, it was like realizing I’d been lied to all my life. Probably because I had been.
I no longer think of the Republican Party as morally better on balance, mind you, but at least on this issue (an issue I care deeply about) they’ve consistently been much better than the Democrats’ pathetic "more money and more PTA meetings" answer.
Maniakes,
You might try a little clarity, because no one knows what the eff you’re talking about, except Dean.
Currently, the public school your children go to is determined by what district your house is in. The quality of public schools varies wildly. Parents are often willing to pay a large premium so their kids can go to the good schools. This leads to houses in good school districts being really expensive.
I am proposing changing the way children are allocated to schools so it’s not tied to the house you live in. I’m deliberately vague as to exactly how, because there are several ways this could happen. Vouchers (you enroll your child in any school, public or private, and the government pays the first $X of tuition)Â are one way. Open enrollment (you pick which public school your children go to, and the schools get a budget based on the number of students) is another. Magnet schools (similar to open enrollment, but with more restrictions) are yet another.
Clear enough?
I am proposing changing the way children are allocated to schools so it’s not tied to the house you live in.
Clear enough ?
Not quite.
You’re proposing that home buyers that move to school districts with noted superior education facilities be mandated to send their children to school districts with substandard educational facilities.
Right ?
Or do you just want the housing prices lowered ?
I don’t see how any of that follows, McKiernan.
Has anyone ever mentioned to you that you often don’t seem to make much sense to most people?
I surrender,
Not much of this makes sense to me either.
According to my friend the junior high teacher, the local school district is determined by your address, but you have a certain amount of choice in which school your child attends. I’m sure there are waiting lists for some schools but proximity is taken into account, and honestly, around here it’s the district level that determines quality.
I’m actually considering homeschooling for various reasons*, so this will affect me less.
*Face time and opportunities. With only one or a few children to deal with, it takes less time to teach the basics, and just imagine field trips where you don’t have the legal morass of thrity kids and permission slips…
Mc Kiernan, I think you’re assuming fixed capacity in the good schools, so letting children from outside the district attend would squeeze out children who live inside the district.
I’m assuming that given additional funding linked to enrollment, the good schools and the good districts can expand teaching capacity quickly enough to handle the increased enrollment.
So how does homeschooling propose to provide the intramural interaction within which students need to develop essential peer groups skills ?
Comments on this entry are closed.