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Comment by yardie | Hacker News Reader

I come from one of those large, poor inner city schools. The money and after school programs absolutely help. I am a product of those after school programs. That additional money paid for musical instruments, sports, computers, and transportation.

I feel personally insulted when people say we shouldn't fund these afterschool programs because they don't feel they are working.

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Oddly enough, it’s usually the people not actually involved who are the experts on why we need to take more away from them.

Pumping money in doesn't work.

Having a good plan and the resources to execute is what works.

I know it sounds like I'm talking about a minor difference, but I think it's a lot bigger than that. You can add more money to a lot of the broken systems in the US. It helps, but it doesn't fix core problems and the systems are still incredibly inefficient.

All great plans start with money as a major factor. The money isn't the only thing necessary but you can't do any of it without it.

Anecdotal experiences are near worthless when discussing policies, though. Feel insulted all you like; statistically speaking, these resources are wasted. Chances are you'd be equally well off without them.

Anecdotal experiences are near worthless, but sweeping statements with no cited sources are equally as bad.

Incorrect. They're worse.

Instead of disparaging anecdotes (which are worth something, actually), can you simply provide data that supersedes it?

And this is where you drop in the links to prove these programs aren't working.

BTW, one data point holds more value than zero.

There's no reason to assume that they work to begin with; pretty much nothing ever does in education. But you can examine the failure of Head Start and the general trends in education costs vs. results to see that the room for improvement is largely used up.

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