Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
You may or may not know but I taught in Japan for years.
They way I understood it the schools were funded “federally” (quotes used because federal is a loaded American term) and very equitably. But unlike America the schools are given a great deal or almost total autonomy locally. Teachers are highly respected and given lifetime tenure from day one. With that respect they’re allowed to govern their schools as they see fit. A cultural uniformity also serves to create a continuity across the country.
Massachusetts and Florida are probably really different animals. What I’ve seen in Florida isn’t underfunding. It’s corruption and usually racist misallocation funds that cause the most harm and leave the most disenfranchised in the lurch.
No matter how much money you throw at the schools around here it’s not going to help the bottom quartile. Money is mostly spent in ways that make sure it’s siphoned back into the hands of super rich people like the top brass at Pearson Education.
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I didn't know you taught in Japan, but that's kinda badass. What did you teach? (I'm guessing English?)
As for the cultural unofrmity, that's also because of a homogeneous population. I think we're saying the same thing ultimately but social programs are more accepted and encouraged when the voter believes the benefits go to someone who looks like them. It's why you're not going to get Single-Payer in the US in one shot.
In the funding example I gave above, that's the Massachusetts model, and we're generally considered the first or second-tier school system in the US - and it's
still that messed up. I only mention it to illustrate why the Federal Government won't help.
But it's why I do think it's harder to rig Regional Schools. If 10 cities go to the same school, you off-set things like local blocades against new residents, and you mitigate against problems like low student population. I'd originally looked into this from the perspective of envrionmental benefits e.g. 10,000 students in 1 building as opposed to 1000 students in 10 buildings, but ended up realizing the social and economic impacts of local-control were way worse than the environmental impacts.