[quote=Rich Toscano] is going to one non-stabby school district vs. a slightly better non-stabby school district really going to make that big a difference in your kid’s career? [/quote]
So, I’m gonna guess that you don’t have any kids. ‘Cause this strange thing happens to people when they have kids. They suddenly start to think in all kinds of totally irrational ways, like… “I’ve got to get the very absolutely best that there is. Absolutely no compromising due to cost or anything else. My kid deserves the absolute best, top shelf, nothing else will do.”
The other reason of course is that most people have little financial reasoning ability to start with, and the idea of actually weighing the cost/benefits is beyond them. How else do you explain $150 jeans? I guess if you’re single and desperately trying to find a rich spouse, you could maybe justify that from a financial sense, but even there it seems a bit of a stretch to me.
[quote=Rich Toscano]Put another way I think the fact of the matter for better or worse is that the most important stuff is learned outside of school. Given this I have a hard time understanding how it will meaningfully impact a child’s life to go to one school over another just because one is slightly better based on some score.[/quote]
Of course this same argument could be used to question why people pay for ivy league colleges. But we’ve all heard of studies that show how much more money you make going to Harvard law or some such infamous place. Of course the fact that just getting into harvard law school is probably the better predictor, and completion of the degree is irrelevant.
[quote=Rich Toscano]Don’t people think that the schools are just gaming things to get a high score, as always happens in a bureaucratic system in which results are reduced to a numerical value?[/quote]
Yes of course the teachers are doing all they can to game the system. And they are doing it with the help of the administrators, politicians and the parents. Sorta like the loan business gaming all the loans with the help of the loan brokers, real estate agents, wall street banks, etc. It’s just good for everyone to cheat on those no doc loans. (See this is a thread about real estate!)
