[miguelazo]

There are many causes of lackluster public education, and funding is definitely one of them. Another huge one is the ability of parents who have the time and resources to divert their children (likely already at a huge advantage) to private and charter schools, thereby skewing the public school below the median in a vicious circle. I’ve seen this exact dynamic play out in many of the cities I have lived. It’s also why newer suburbs (avoiding legacy costs and filled with upwardly mobile, resourced families) have excellent public schools.

[OkayPhysicist]

It's difficult to overstate just how huge selection bias can get in the education space. I went to a high school in the Bay Area, one of a handful in my city. (1) Houses in our attendance area were ~$500,000+x more expensive than ones right across the street in another attendance area, because our school was "better". Why was it better? Because the parents paying an extra half million dollars to get their kid into a better school were going to make sure their kid did better, come hell or high water. So there were lots and lots and lots of after-school tutoring centers, where students would get taught the highschool material in advance, so that they would already know it forward and back when they were tested on it. Which makes the school test well, and thus look better than the other schools in the area, raising housing prices. x += $100,000; GOTO (1).

The actual quality of the education was substandard, but there is something to be said for being embedded in an environment where academic failure was simply not considered an option.

[rayiner]

> There are many causes of lackluster public education, and funding is definitely one of them

Explain why some of the worst school systems are some of the best funded. https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/more-than-75...

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/baltimore-ci...

[miguelazo]

The increase mentioned in your article was in the last 4 years? Seems a bit late for the testing outcomes in your original link. Pretty terrible example. Also, that area is a perfect example of where parents with the means move their kids (and their attention) to charter/private operations, exacerbating the problem.