Quote:
Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I didn't grow up in the projects. I grew up near them. My mother was very well educated and I had advantages in travel and experience when growing up that most adults could only dream of.
The project kids I knew only left their neighborhood to go Six Flags once a year on a field trip with our shitty public school. Maybe. Their whole world consisted of a five block radius and television. They were often left alone because even in Section 8 housing, their parents had multiple jobs just to put food on the table. I've told stories here of the games these kids played which basically amounted to stealing so they could have something to eat. I won't talk about incarceration for selling or possessing weed or the basic, every day danger of living in the projects. But thinking that anyone in these circumstances can just decide to make their kids' educations a priority in the same way you might is crazy.
Yeah. Tear down all projects/Section 8 housing, spread low income families all over the place with halfway decent housing and affordable housing so neighborhoods all have a true mix of classes and there are no concentrations of the super-poor. Allow everyone to vote (felons included) and make it a public holiday. Fund all public schools equally (per capita). Tax private schools to fund shortfalls in public schools. Increase the minimum wage. Provide access to daycare everywhere. End racism. Maintain these changes for 5 generations and reevaluate at that point. I suppose that's a good start.
TM
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A negative income tax would fund all that by eliminating the existing bureaucracy. The whole point, I assume, of tearing down the Section 8 housing and going to low-density housing would be to put kids in the types of school districts I was talking about, am I right? Same with the increase in the minimum wage: it would allow more parents to escape the barriers to them being involved with their families and their childrens' education.
You're not arguing different effect, just accusing me of failing to appreciate the cause. I appreciate the causes of parents in low-income areas lack of involvement. I didn't outline it, but that doesn't mean I don't know or understand it. I didn't discuss the causes since, no matter how we affect change in the amount of parental involvement, we aren't going to improve the quality of education in lower-income areas without it.
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