Not so long ago, I heard someone interviewed on the radio about a better way to fund public education. I think he said they were doing it in Seattle or someplace out west.
The system assigns a cost to each of several different factors that may be represented by a single student. The cost for all those factors is added up, and that amount of money follows the student wherever s/he goes. Because of this system good schools compete for all the students, not just the cheapest to educate. Some factors he mentioned: English learner Medical or special emotional needs disadvantage home environment insufficient preparation for first grade. Under this funding plan, schools were provided with several times as much money for hard-to-educate kids than for normal kids. Treating all kids as if they have the same cost basis isn't rational, and if families can move to environments, such as suburbs, where the kids are less costly to educate, they will naturally be able to afford better schools for the same money. I wish I could remember who the speaker was, and where this is done. Has anyone on the list heard of this system? Mary C. Zanmiller said: > > > Tom is just plain misinformed when he perpetrates the fallacy about a > purported "decline in public education." > > Public schools can successfully educate students and should be supported > both financially and politically to do so. Research does not support an > advantage to non-public schooling. An analysis of published research on > this question found that: > -- Bob Treumann, Saint Paul Please Note: Replies to this email address all go to the trash except where the subject line contains a recognized mailing list identifier, such as [TCMETRO] _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
