School Choice - It's Time

[Tapate50]

At the top schools legacy admissions are 10-15%. Some schools don't use them at all. Some give points for grandparents, aunts, uncles and siblings who attended in addition to parents.

At some top schools recruited athletes make up to 20%. Of course at a selective school they're also usually very good students. But between legacy admissions and athletes, the number of spots for garden variety outstanding students get squeezed fast. As a group recruited athletes at top schools come from highly privileged backgrounds. It is an interesting situation. Jocks and legacy admissions really do squeeze out very deserving applicants from less privileged backgrounds.

It is also possible to influence admissions by simply making a very large donation.

At some schools.

At some schools indeed. Not many.

It’s not a huge number cramping the style of average Joe student.

Neither are athletes.

 

[acesfull86]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/randi-weingarten-supreme-court-racial-preferences-education-teachers-unions-7ee95c8b?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy testified in a lawsuit brought by minority students last decade that it can take 10 years and $250,000 to $450,000 to fire a lousy teacher. Fewer than 0.002% of teachers in California were dismissed for unprofessional conduct or poor performance.

A single year with a grossly ineffective teacher can cost a classroom of students $1.4 million in lifetime earnings. Less experienced teachers are more likely to be assigned to schools in lower-income neighborhoods. Yet these schools can’t recruit higher-performing teachers by offering higher pay since labor contracts base salaries on experience.

The unions more than anyone else are responsible for racial differences in education. College racial preferences try to paper over those disparities while easing political pressure for education reform. Ms. [Randi] Weingarten can’t admit this because she’d indict her life’s work.