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Comment by monero-xmr | Hacker News Reader

I would much prefer “backpack funding” aka vouchers. The blue-state city I live in spends almost $25k per student per year and apart from a few magnet schools they are atrociously bad. Like the high school my kids would have to attend if I wasn’t wealthy had a student murdered outside of it a few years ago.

If you gave parents even 1/3 of that money the state would save a fortune and parents would be so much better off. The monopoly system of education we have is just so awful. I’m fine with having bonus benefits for special needs kids, and public schools should always exist to educate the high-needs students. But the system we have now is so laughably bad and segregated that anyone who defends it must have a financial stake in keeping it running.

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Naïve per-student-spending calculations can misleading. Some students cost a lot more than others. My state spends hundreds of thousands per student in some cases—but that's schools in juvenile detention facilities. Nonetheless, that goes in the stats. Kids in self-contained classrooms ("special ed" kids who can't function in the normal classroom) can be several times as expensive to educate as the median kid. Kids in ordinary classrooms who get a dedicated assistant, they've got all the usual spending plus the fully-loaded cost of the assistant, so that's easily over $50k total. Kid in a gifted program? Add low-five figures to the cost. Fancy selective-admission public schools, which some states have? Typically higher spending per student than other schools, which drags up the average.

They also have bussing costs, which (e.g.) private schools don't, which further complicates comparisons. That's not a small amount of money.

I clearly stated I am fine for the special needs kids getting more funding. The central point is to give me - the parent - the money that would go to the atrociously bad school so I can put my kids (not special needs) into a good school. That is the situation for the majority of students.

So, to be clear, you’re fine with funding special needs education and etc. as long as it’s someone else footing the bill.

I have no idea what you are talking about. I already pay via my tax dollars $25k on average per student. I’m suggesting reducing that spend, for those that want it for non-special needs kids, and giving the reduced amount to parents to spend on any school they want - or staying in their public school they already have.

The problem is the local public school where everyone in my neighborhood is forced to go (unless they are rich) is dangerous and ranked bottom 5%. That is extremely racist, inequitable, and unfair to people who are forced to attend.

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