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: : DDN2) Since we already spend at least twice as much per student than any other country in the world and we still rank almost dead last in math and science (and not so hot in other areas either), we need to collectively admit that throwing more money at public education is (and has been) an act of pure desperation and futility devoid of anything even remotely resembling reason or critical analysis. :
: SDF: Well, the poor are desperate. Ever been to south central LA, Deep Dad?
: DDN: Desperate in what way?
SDF: Uh, desperate for day care, first of all. That's why their children come home to empty houses every day and turn on their TV sets to get their real educations. Let me ask you this: why do kids join gangs?
: In a way that the PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM should or could help? If so then somebody needs to look at why there is an uneven distribution of public education funds.
SDF: Well, we could start with the gross inequity produced by American capitalism, and continue with an examination of the coteries of American parents who want their kid to have privileges that other kids don't have, for the sake of giving their elite kids a competitive edge...
: Why are they “desperate” if every other developed nation in the world spends less than half as much as we do per student and yet manage to stomp us into the ground in math and science?
SDF: For an understanding of this problem I'd look at a copy of a book titled "lies, damn lies, and statistics." Spending "less than half as much as we do" might mean that, in other societies, teachers are better respected and much more poorly paid within economies that don't compare to the US economy because they're much less expensive. You know, when the statisticians tell you that in Botswana or whereever, that people live on $60 a month, you can't seriously compare that to living on $60 a month in the US...there's less overhead in Botswana for one...
: Why do ten’s of thousands of OTHER public schools have enough money for football teams, PTA clubs, swimming pools, and after school programs but the homies in south central are “desperate”? THAT’S the rational first course of action, NOT taxing the shit out of us to make up for some incessant beurocratic fuckup or Department of Education corruption.
SDF: Actually, schools are cheap and humane as places of crowd containment, in this era of capitalism when crowds must be contained while the ruling class extracts wealth from their labor-power. The anti-tax rant about schools is misplaced, as its background is an America which is in fact taxing its citizens at "such high rates" to house more and more prisoners at the cost of $24,000 per person per year (not including construction costs). And you can make a far better living as a prison guard with much less of an education, than you can make as a teacher.
None.
