rcpt 2 days ago

It's not because of BLM. It's because of Prop 13.

5
jedberg 2 days ago

It could be both. Prop 13 is definitely a huge problem, it cut school funding significantly since the 80s.

But also the focus on equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity.

I read a good book a while back that pointed out how much more we spend on special ed, which is aimed at the bottom 5%, compared to what we spend on gifted education, which is the top 5%. It asked why we would spend so much on one and not the other, especially since the ROI is so much higher for the top 5%. (It obviously skipped the whole "making our society better and helping those in need" argument since it hurt their argument).

panzagl 2 days ago

Special ed is expensive because it's things like 'this student needs a full time aid'. The only way to decrease it is to basically abandon those children.

jedberg 2 days ago

Or agree that the top 5% should get the same resources and give each one a private tutor at the same cost.

elzbardico 2 days ago

So paying incompetent administrators and teacher even more than what they make in California will somehow improve things magically? The solution is to always tax more, that's it?

teachrdan 2 days ago

Funny how HN never assumes that paying software developers more money is pointless. It's just those greedy teachers trying to make enough money to buy a home!

tick_tock_tick 2 days ago

Spending per student isn't really that related to test performance so I don't really understand the link?

BadHumans 2 days ago

Go on...Going to need a little bit more of an explanation here.

edmundsauto 2 days ago

Prop 13 limits property taxes which are typically used for funding local schools. The comment is implying that it’s low school funding in Ca that is the culprit.

itbeho 2 days ago

Property prices in California have skyrocketed in the last decase, and so have tax revenues. Spending more money wastefully won't solve the problem.

BadHumans 2 days ago

I understand now thanks. That point doesn't make sense to me in the context of the article because the article is claiming that black and Latino gifted children were under-scouted until the BLM movement. Seems that this and that are 2 different issues.

pfisherman 2 days ago

Prop 13 had a huge negative effect on quality of public schools in California, which I got to experience first hand.

The difference was quite apparent to me during high school when I compared my older siblings’ yearbooks to my experience of the same school a decade later. They had so many more classes, clubs, sports, programs, and activities available to them than I did.

cosinetau 2 days ago

Prop 13 prevents new property tax without a direct referendum.

Without new revenue streams, gifted programs were affordable for school districts until they were not.

xbar 2 days ago

Specifically, Prop. 13's impact on commercial real estate, which was the real reason for it all along.