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Comment by dnomad | Hacker News Reader

> That is quite a bit more than high-quality schooling.

I'm not familiar with any legal or otherwise definition that constrains what services a school can and cannot provide. There are in fact high-quality boarding schools in Europe that provide all these services and more. (In fact they provide free housing to some of their students!)

> And does the touted "closing" of the black-white achievement gap persist if white students receive the same treatment?

Why be a coward, Andrew Anglin? Why don't you just come out and say what you mean?

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> I'm not familiar with any legal or otherwise definition that constrains what services a school can and cannot provide.

It is important to note in a study where the abstract suggests a community focused approach is not necessary.

They should put in the abstract: Community approach not necessary if you get the school to provide the most critical community offerings.

You do realize that addressing the achievement gap is the point of both the school and the article, correct? It then makes sense to question if the gap might re-emerge if similar methods were applied to all students, does it not? I have no problem saying precisely what I mean to say.

> It then makes sense to question if the gap might re-emerge if similar methods were applied to all students, does it not?

No, it doesn't make any sense. What do you think actually causes the gap? Is it some magical force inherent in white children?

They've shown they can eliminate the gap by addressing environmental issues like nutrition and providing more school time. That would indicate to a logical person that the gap is caused or at least correlated with precisely these deficiencies that were corrected. If other kids don't experience these deficiencies what would make you think more nutrition or more school time could increase their performance?

>No, it doesn't make any sense. What do you think actually causes the gap? Is it some magical force inherent in white children?

You mean genetics?

How is spending twice as long at school correcting a deficiency? Are you sure you understand what a deficiency is? If spending twice as long at school can improve the results of the poor black students in this study, why shouldn't it do the same for white students? If it does, what happens to the achievement gap? How is this not a reasonable question? And do you really think being provided free medical care, dental care, mental health care, etc. is not qualitatively different than receiving the same from the fruit of the parents' labor?

i don’t think taxpayer provided medical etc care is any different than getting it from parents’ employer-provided (tax-code-subsidized) insurance or from inherited wealth from generations ago. in all cases it’s manna from heaven as far as young kids know. is there some problem with european or canadian children who get these things from a single-payer government scheme?

> What do you think actually causes the gap? Is it some magical force inherent in white children?

Why do you go straight to the absurd?

Can you not think of any other factors?

As an example what if poor early childhood nutrition maxes you out at a lower peak?

It is a fair question.

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