<p>“I’m surprised you think gaps in quality of education are a good thing, for the sake of “diversity”.”</p>
<p>Strawman.</p>
<p>We have standardized testing in my state. School districts are basically forced to pick a particular math curriculum to score well on the state math tests. So everyone gets to experience a bad choice in curriculum. Some districts supplement which produces better results (on the tests and in life). Our elite private schools aren’t subject to state testing requirements and choose whatever they want to. Some of them roll their own curriculum while others use standard textbooks, maybe from ten or twenty years ago.</p>
<p>“but it would be great if some schools weren’t so underfunded. The schools I volunteer in are falling apart - crappy facilities and equipment, outdated textbooks, underpaid teachers. I grew up less than 5 miles aways from these people and went to one of the best public schools in the nation. Funding makes a huge difference.”</p>
<p>It makes a difference but you get into a feedback loop where parents of means ratchet things up. The New Jersey experiments of the 1980s and 1990s are the best examples of why a stay-at-home parent is hard to compensate for by funding.</p>
<p>“Perhaps, but the system has changed. Many HS’s don’t teach classes like woodwork for students to learn hands-on skills anymore. The OP is right when she says the public education system doesn’t put much value on the blue collar trades anymore.”</p>
<p>That’s an argument for diversity.</p>