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Crazy, regarding your four-point plan to improve our schools, I agree with all of them except number three. With local control over schools, you wind up with the vast inequities that we currently have from school to school. For example, a school in Winnetka (a suburb of Chicago where the average home price was >$1M in 2003) has vastly superior schools than those on Chicago's South Side.
That's because schools are funded and controlled, generally, locally. Inner city schools simply do not have the resources to compete with those in wealthy areas. The kids who are at a disadvantage are put at an ever greater disadvantage the more we localize funding and control.
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On a side note, I would contend that parenting has alot to do with the disparities in success from one student to another. But it's tough to hold a kid accountable for his/her parents' failings. That's one of the reasons that schools in poorer areas actually need MORE funding than their suburban counterparts. The kids need extra help to make up for what they're not getting at home.
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"If I cannot smoke cigars in heaven, I shall not go!"
- Mark Twain
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