[ryandrake]

I think the point is that $/student is not a great metric. You could spend $500K/student, have world-class teachers, and still not improve their home life or how much their parents value/support their kids' education. Without parental engagement, you're not going to move the needle on outcomes.

[toomuchtodo]

Agreed, but who is going to say "no amount of reasonable spending is going to materially improve outcomes because parents and systemic socioeconomic issues are the problem" though? Not a lot of appetite for that conversation. Easier to say "fund schools more" because that problem feels tractable.