[WalterBright]

> How much of that can be attributed to selection bias though?

The Seattle Public Schools have recently seen a large outflow of parents because of their wretched performance. The performance difference has to be pretty bad for parents to be willing to pony up $20,000 for private tuition.

> so that's just not true

I read the paper. Every single article about the schools has the schools saying they need more revenue, for my entire life. The Seattle Public Schools get $24,000 per student, and they're claiming they need more revenue.

> private corporations

Sure, I have. They all regularly laid off the non-performers, except for the union members.

> GED

I wasn't talking about the GED. I'm talking about the public schools.

> high stakes testing

No, there is no punishment for failing the tests. But the public schools decry those tests because it shows what a bad job the schools do. They also claim that students can master a subject while being unable to answer questions about it. I'm not buying it. Would you get on an airplane with a pilot who flunked his certification tests? Would you take his word that he really was a good pilot? Washington State just lowered the requirements for becoming a lawyer - passing the Bar exam is no longer a requirement. Would you hire such a lawyer? Not me. Next time I need a lawyer, I'll ask if he passed the Bar. I'd move on if he hadn't.

> has this actually happened?

Yes, at the Seattle Public Schools.

[seanmcdirmid]

To note, all the schools in the Seattle area are losing students, not just Seattle but also Bellevue which doesn’t have the same progressive policies as the SPS does.

Due to a WA state Supreme Court ruling, more property tax money will be re-divided to districts that lost the least number of kids (or actually grew). So every kid the SPS loses, it actually loses most of that $24k. And yes, it’s usually the non-special ed kids who are cheaper to teach that move away or to private schools, so that hurts the district even more. I actually like it like this, as it forces the SPS to be more attentive to all its students.

[tombert]

> The Seattle Public Schools have recently seen a large outflow of parents because of their wretched performance. The performance difference has to be pretty bad for parents to be willing to pony up $20,000 for private tuition.

That was orthogonal to my statement and didn’t actually say anything.

> I wasn't talking about the GED. I'm talking about the public schools.

I know. I am saying that for both of our entire lives there’s been an easy way to get a high school diploma, so even if I agree with the assertion that schools are getting easier, it was never a guarantee that the person got a great education.

> I read the paper. Every single article about the schools has the schools saying they need more revenue, for my entire life. The Seattle Public Schools get $24,000 per student, and they're claiming they need more revenue.

You’re saying that number as if it is somehow too big. How much do you think it should cost to teach a student? Public schools have a lot more responsibilities than a private school; if nothing else they’re required to bus students from any distance in.

> Sure, I have. They all regularly laid off the non-performers, except for the union members.

Bullshit. I am sorry but you’re either misremembering or not being honest, or the word “regularly” is doing a ton of work.

I was at Apple for two years, I met people who, I think, did literally nothing the entire time I was there. I suppose it’s possible that they were fired after I left, but they did nothing for at least two years.

> No, there is no punishment for failing the tests. But the public schools decry those tests because it shows what a bad job the schools do.

That’s an assertion and you do not have any way of knowing if that’s true, and borders on conspiratorial.

> They also claim that students can master a subject while being unable to answer questions about it.

Who claims this? I certainly didn’t.

Doing an exam to gauge how much someone knows is one thing, but the school system, public and private, doesn’t do that. It creates a bizarre gamified system of GPAs and also will create situations where no matter how hard you work it is mathematically impossible to bring up your GPA.

I don’t know the solution but it’s absurd to think that what we have had before is perfect.

But I am having some trouble finding anything but opinion pieces on this, do you have any kind of school board ruling or statute you can point to?

> Yes, at the Seattle Public Schools.

Again, I cannot find anything but opinion pieces on this and assertions on Reddit. Opinion pieces are not news, the NY Post is a joke. Do you have any link to the source of these claims?

Even reading through the Reason.com article, which is where I assume you heard this, it doesn’t appear that they’re really getting rid of gifted programs so much as this is just a reallocation and increased integration. That’s not the same thing.

[WalterBright]

> or not being honest

I'm done here.

[tombert]

Sorry if I came off as hostile. However, I don’t believe that you haven’t found anyone useless at large corporations that was able to survive layoffs, and I sincerely do not believe you were talking in good faith.