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Comment by yequalsx | Hacker News Reader

To fix inequality of opportunities one would be well advised to start with the way k-12 schools are funded. It's too late for most disadvantaged students by the time they are old enough to go to college.

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Some of the best-funded and worst-performing school systems are ones in inner cities with high minority populations. Baltimore, MD public schools spends more per student than the wealthy D.C. suburb of Montgomery County, MD, despite having a lower cost of living.

Sure. But many of the worst performing schools are under funded. You can find outliers either way. There's also the fact that the way k-12 schools are funded causes socio-economic segregation. People with means congregate together due to schools (among other reasons). I don't know if this would be true but maybe if there was genuine equality of funding throughout the country then maybe there would be less socio-economic segregation.

There is more or less equality of funding (at least, between rich and poor counties in the same state): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/03/12/in-2....

> Federal spending — including through Title I, money meant to bolster programs for poor children — is serving as an equalizer, according to the federal data. When federal dollars are included, just five states are spending less in their poorest districts than in their wealthiest. Nationwide, the average disparity drops from 15 percent to less than 2 percent.

From what I've read school funding for k-12 varies widely throughout the country.

http://www.asha.org/Advocacy/schoolfundadv/Overview-of-Fundi...

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/05/18/the-k-12-fundin...

I'm no expert on the issue but I have seen schools in poor neighborhoods lacking in computers and with dilapidated equipment. In rich districts I've never seen this. I doubt that just looking at numbers as in the Washington Post article is sufficient to get to the bottom of the issue. Of course, I'm not certain I'm right either.

Whatever the reason I think there is no doubt that some schools are run down and have crappy learning environments. They certainly, on the outside, give the impression of being underfunded.

Free and reduced breakfast and lunch will do that to any budget.

Throwing more money at failing and corrupt school districts wont fix it either.

SO just went through a school like one you mention. Yes, it was really bad, and yes, admin had a lot to do with it. Yes, funding was an issue, a big one, but not the main one.

Want to fix it?

Go to your next PTA meeting, become a coach on a team there, volunteer with the local school, get involved, today. Do you even know where your kids would go to school from the place you live (speaking to HN in general)?

This is a democracy, you must participate for it to function at all. Sitting there screaming at the internet and the Moldavian troll-bots isn't fixing anything. Yes, it stinks. Yes, the admins and the superintendant are complete and total idiots. Guess who gets to fix it?

You do.

It's likely near the beginning of the school year near you. Now, today, is the best time of the entire year.

Tying such a large percentage of funding to the property wealth of the community ensures the poor remain under educated without access to upward mobility. I cringe thinking what effect this had in the Jim Crow era.

Highly dependent on state. In CA, all money goes to Sacramento and then gets re-distributed to schools.

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