This is for Hawaii, which funds schools at the state level, which one would expect to dodge the problem of rich schools and poor schools based on property taxes, but there’s still a whole lot of difference in school performance that mostly corresponds to rich areas and poor areas.
There are a lot of people spending pretty hefty sums to send their kids to private schools, but the school disparity referenced above is across public schools. Most kids still go to public school.
Schools are funded centrally. I don’t know enough to know how the funds are distributed, but I don’t think the disparity is just corruption sending more money per student to the rich areas. But there are still a lot of things that (on average) can cause disparate results. The best teachers would rather live in nicer areas, rich parents can pay for tutors and extra curriculars, rich parents likely have more access to politicians or administrators to make sure the school is serving their kid, poverty itself is disruptive to learning, etc.
The lesson I take from it isn’t that state funding is a bad idea, but that it’s not a silver bullet to erase the difference in educational opportunity.
This is for Hawaii, which funds schools at the state level, which one would expect to dodge the problem of rich schools and poor schools based on property taxes, but there’s still a whole lot of difference in school performance that mostly corresponds to rich areas and poor areas.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Hawaii and as I understand it, most that can afford to do so, send their kids to private schools. Is that true?
So the schools are funded kind of centrally versus locally with property taxes?
There are a lot of people spending pretty hefty sums to send their kids to private schools, but the school disparity referenced above is across public schools. Most kids still go to public school.
Schools are funded centrally. I don’t know enough to know how the funds are distributed, but I don’t think the disparity is just corruption sending more money per student to the rich areas. But there are still a lot of things that (on average) can cause disparate results. The best teachers would rather live in nicer areas, rich parents can pay for tutors and extra curriculars, rich parents likely have more access to politicians or administrators to make sure the school is serving their kid, poverty itself is disruptive to learning, etc.
The lesson I take from it isn’t that state funding is a bad idea, but that it’s not a silver bullet to erase the difference in educational opportunity.