Live data from Hacker News

The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

online.wsj.com

11–20 of 147 posts

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#11
post #3

America is still a deeply segregated society. And the segregation is built in such a way that it tends to keep people where they always where.

Is there something wrong with groups of people wanting to self segregate?

If by "wrong" you mean "leads to worse outcomes" - then very possibly yes.

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#13

In general, "Better school" means a school with more whites and or Asians. "Bad schools" means a school with more black and Hispanic students.

Not sure by your statement if you have children or not. But I just finished enrolling my children in a private school instead of the local public school. I really don't care if they are black or white I want my children to go to a school where the parents value education as much as I do.

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#14

I'm not sure if, as I progress through my 30s, I am becoming more liberal, more cynical or more jaded, or what, but it seems like every day I read some article about the United States which elicits a, "What the FUCK?" from me. This is one of those articles. Seriously? Prison ??

The article neglected to provide any rationale whatsoever for the "other side" which may be the triggering the WTFs. I'm not saying the logic is good, but here it is: A proportion of the school's budget comes from property tax. I found a pdf that says it is about 20% of the budget in California [1]. Thus:

Expensive neighborhood -> lots of property tax -> rich school

So essentially the laws punish freeloaders of education. Out of all the things a person can "freeload" education is probably the most noble, which I guess is why the law seems so dicey.

[1] http://www.edsource.org/pub_QA_BudgetProcess06.html

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#15
>> In case you needed further proof of the American education system's failings, especially in poor and minority communities, consider the latest crime to spread across the country: educational theft.

I'm not sure if it is entirely fair to single out the education system here (once again), or at least batch it in with "yet another failing". I believe more is at fault here.

Unless I'm mistaken, tax payers in a particular school district (or county) fund the school district they're part of. A consequence of this fact, in the name of fairness for the parents, is the necessity for your child to attend a school that you are directly funding (and not attend a school you're not funding, which is what the mother in the story is doing). As long as we're sticking with this system of funding our own schools in this manner, we will naturally be encouraging segregation of classes and have no choice but to turn down those who try to get around it.

So I agree a woman shouldn't be jailed for trying to circumvent the system in this manner, but with the above knowledge of how the system operates, it doesn't surprise me that she would be punished, as I'm sure many others are as well.

Allowing people to attend any school they like (which this article is arguing for I believe?) is a pretty fundamental shift in the system.

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#16
post #3

America is still a deeply segregated society. And the segregation is built in such a way that it tends to keep people where they always where.

Is there something wrong with groups of people wanting to self segregate?

It depends. Is it because they don't want to be in an unfamiliar environment, or because they don't want an unfamiliar environment to be around them?

If they're hostile to other groups in some way, that's not a good thing (I don't want white/black/pink/red/... people around my house). But there's nothing wrong with staying in some area because you want to be close to your family (which leads to "natural" race concentration within that area).

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#17
This is hardly anything new. 20+ years ago, I knew kids with parents that did the same thing (though often for athletics instead of academics). Even within the city (where, at the time, you were required to attend the neighborhood school), parents found ways to game the system.

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there something wrong with groups of people wanting to self segregate?

If by "wrong" you mean "leads to worse outcomes" - then very possibly yes.

How do we define "segregate"? Is it just across 'skin color' / 'irrelevant heritage' lines? What if I identify with and want to live around entrepreneurs? atheists? 'survivalists'? Homosexuals?

I think I can make a fairly strong argument for homosexuals preferring to live among themselves as being ultimately detrimental to society (reduced exposure to homosexuals allows intolerance and misunderstanding to fester), however I would never dream of calling the desire to isolate themselves from hatred "wrong".

Edit: I take it from the downvotes that we're just talking about segregation across "'skin color' / 'irrelevant heritage'" lines for some reason...

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#19

I'm not sure if, as I progress through my 30s, I am becoming more liberal, more cynical or more jaded, or what, but it seems like every day I read some article about the United States which elicits a, "What the FUCK?" from me. This is one of those articles. Seriously? Prison ??

The article neglected to provide any rationale whatsoever for the "other side" which may be the triggering the WTFs. I'm not saying the logic is good, but here it is: A proportion of the school's budget comes from property tax. I found a pdf that says it is about 20% of the budget in California [1]. Thus: Expensive neighborhood -> lots of property tax -> rich school So essentially the laws punish freeloaders of educa…

I don't really care about the other side. Why are we putting people in prison over this? Having the law/rule is one thing, I guess, but the punishment is extremely excessive. 10 days in prison, and 3 years of probation? She's lucky she got commuted by the governor. Not everyone will be so.

Re: The Latest Crime Wave: Sending Your Child to a Better School

#20

In general, "Better school" means a school with more whites and or Asians. "Bad schools" means a school with more black and Hispanic students.

Not sure by your statement if you have children or not. But I just finished enrolling my children in a private school instead of the local public school. I really don't care if they are black or white I want my children to go to a school where the parents value education as much as I do.

I have mixed race children and do whatever it takes to make sure that they are in schools that made up of mostly white, Asian, or Indian (India) students. Black and Hispanic students have shown no signs of valuing education and the schools usually plagued with violence. I'm not alone in this thinking; every single Asian family I know does the same.
Post reply on HN