Also, school choice for everybody.

What ikes said.

The Drug War has had the same effect on crime in this country that alcohol Prohibition did. The only difference is that enforcement was changed to mostly target non-whites so that white people wouldn't complain about it. Without the Drug War, violent crime in this country would drop by at least 50% IMO.

I used to spend a lot of time worrying about the plight of the poor people in the inner cities. But when I figured out that the cost of a bus ride to areas where good paying jobs are plentiful didn't make a dent in a welfare check, I started worrying about people who have no opportunity.

cocanat's got it all figured out, folks.

Can you please cite the scientific study for this?

If you've never been taught how to see that opportunity, it's as good as non-existent.

The solution is to target more whites.

Here's a NYT article from a quick google. If you google 'Geoffrey Canada critics' you'll find plenty of stuff. Charter schools v. public schools, etc, etc.

My own opinion is that the inner city public schools are terrible. Can't fire bad teachers, can't jettison the disruptive students that ruin it for everyone else. I'm sure that there are ppl on here nearing the stroke I mentioned right about now bec that's how 'violent' this topic can get.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/leg...fornia-n149861

It was only 6 gallons a day.

Knew this after reading his very first poast itf, now I skip all of his poasts because reading them feels like cheating and I won't never learn nothing

meanwhile negs has solved CA's drought man today was a good day and it's not even over

This too.

It's pretty beyond insane that so many LINOs are opposed to school choice and then try to blame the problems with schools on funding. More funding would definitely be great, but it will never fix the problem, which is bureaucracy.

The reality is that wealthier families can afford to take the time from not having to work 2 jobs a week of physically demanding labor to go to PTA conferences and school board meetings and complain about the state of their children's schools, which makes the politicians direct more money towards those schools and away from the school where parents aren't complaining as much. A lot of the cause of this isn't even caused by the systemic racism in our society, it's simply bureaucrats responding to those who are yelling the loudest, although it does make the racism worse. Let people choose their own school, even to the point of allowing private schools to compete with public schools for voucher money, and this problem will improve dramatically.

"According to a local report" is about as far from science as you can get.

I've seen medical studies with a sample size as small as 18. When conclusions of studies follow preconceived conclusions, politicians readily accept its findings.

The cold hard truth is that many **** schools and **** school districts receive much more money per student than their better counterparts.

Poor people in the US have it better than poor in most other countries. People say that the war on poverty is a failure but I disagree. In the US 75% of people below the poverty line have cars, 50% have PCs. The typical poor person has a refrigerator, stove, microwave, AC, cable or satellite TV, Xbox or PS, cell phone.

Getting the roughly 5 Billion people world-wide with no internet access a way to get online will make the difference everywhere, not just in the US.

How is that controversial? It seems like obvious logic to me.

Somehow there are ppl that manage to disagree.

School vouchers are a great issue to differentiate between thinking liberals and partisan liberals. You'll find a decent number of people for them here, but you'll find a lot of people who are vehemently against them.... for the children of course.

Of course. If ever there were a bunch of 'nyah, nyah, nyah, I can't hear you!' ppl w/ their fingers stuck in their ears it's ppl that won't, under any circumstances, do anything to endanger the entrenched government school system w/ it's attendant parasites and failures.

Geoffrey Canada had great success with his first classes. Canada got the children from cradle-to-college. He got them at kindergarten. It is much harder if he is given 10-year olds who are already far behind. Maybe $16,000 per year per student is a bargain. Doesn't it cost over $60,000 per year per prison convict?

This is one of those things where the money spent is really worth it if done right over some number of generations.

I'm a liberal who is not strongly opposed to school vouchers. I'm actually quite willing to see school vouchers being used at religious schools instead of the adopting the knee-jerk secularism of other liberals. I would much rather see school vouchers used at a Christian school where teachers have some sort of a union than at a secular private school where teachers do not have any collective bargaining.

Vouchers seems to be half-assing it to me. Why not take certain powers away from the school union--like being able to fire bad teachers and pay good teachers more--and then start experimenting with different measures to reduce the costs of bureaucracy. Streamline where the money comes from to fund the school so that all schools get the same amount.

What advantages would charter schools have over that plan?