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> All the wealthy families sending their kids to private schools or homeschooling and removing their property taxes from the public school system.

How exactly does that work?

We homeschool and I pay property taxes that fund our local school just like everyone else in town. I pay for services that I don't use and can be used for other children if the powers that be decide to allocate it that way.

The above poster is talking about "school choice" which is making its rounds through legislatures in red states. The legislation effectively defunds public schools if people decide to homeschool or can afford to send their children to private school.

You use defunding as if it is a bad thing. The purpose of the public school system is not to maximize funding or revenue.

School choice/vouchers defund public schools proportional to loss of public school responsibility for students.

Yes, but the argument goes that parents who are likely to move their kids elsewhere have kids where the cost to educate them is just a fraction of what is being spent on the average kid. Imagine a school system that spends $15k per student per year. But that is just the average. Some of the kids are only consuming $5k of resources while others require $60k per year. If the kids who are only costing $5k go to another school and take the $15k with them, they will presumably get a better education where more of the $15k will be allocated to them. Meanwhile at the school that was used to spending $60k on some students, they will presumably need to have less disparity in the amount they spend on each student.

Well maybe we shouldnt be paying schools the same for disabled and average students to begin with.

Besides, it is pretty said that the best counter argument against charter schools is that parents will take their fair share of funding and use it to buy a much better education for their children.

I believe that most school systems do get more money for disabled kids. But kids that do their homework, pay attention in class, etc. cost a lot less to educate than a kid who isn't really interested in learning--even without any disabilities.

To your point about charter schools, there is a strong argument to be made that when parents have a choice where there kids go, public schools will have to make sure they are providing more academic opportunities if they don't want to risk losing the academically minded families (and their money). That seems like it would be a good thing for everyone.

Couldn't there be a scheme by which parents could reduce their taxes by privately educating their children, but only up to some portion of the public schools' savings from not having to educate those children?

You'll find public school unions are very opposed to that idea.

Yeah, school choice is a bullshit policy, typical of the fuck-you, got-mine neocon movement.

I voted to raise property tax where I live specifically to improve the funding situation for our struggling public schools - I attended a great public school district growing up (because, surprise: my parents could afford to move into the district).

The funding situation needs to be fixed across the board, because indeed everyone attending public school deserves as good an education as I received, but the way the system functions currently is that poor areas get poor schools (at least in the midwest where I've lived).

So, while I whole-heartedly support education reform and improving funding as public policies: I still wouldn't send my own kids to the public school district where I live; they're terrible. I wish they weren't.

The problems public schools are facing aren't (all) funding related

> Society will not be a better place for your kids if they are individually 10% better but 10% of the children born in the US basically have no access to education.

But that's not how they think. They believe the bottom 10% deserve their hard lives.

Capitalism needs an oppressed class to function.

The people on top write laws to ensure the oppressed class will exist. Then they sell it to the middle class using scary stories of crime, religion, etc.

Or, people believe that the school system as it exists now has serious problems under layers of unchangeable management so the best solution is a different option.

You’ll know this by the people who campaign for voucher programs that we’re all told are evil somehow. Yet the goal of vouchers is to make all options available to everyone.

Without vouchers, all options are only available to those with financial options.

You can go to public school, private school or a home school program. If you want a better public school, you have to move to a better rated school district. In order to do that, you have to be able to afford it.

Without vouchers, poor families only option is public school where they currently live. People opposed to vouchers have 1 goal: preserve the status quo. They’ll tell you absolutely anything to convince you otherwise too.