Sonic Charmer makes some good points about this stupid post by Yglesias.
As the parent of a high school sophomore in a private school, I’d like to add the following:
I’m certain the Chicago has a few public high schools that are of the quality of the magnet schools here in Dallas. It is from those schools where the scores are generated to pull up the mean that Ygelias points out. For example, here in Dallas the Townview High School is a highly rated academic institution. It’s tough to get into. It’s also in a part of town that is a total bitch for me to get my kid to on a daily basis. I’m certain the time and money spent commuting to that school from my home is worth more than the tuition we pay for our son to be in a private school.
I also know that my parenting of the Deuce, who is fifteen, is largely done and that the biggest influences in his life right now are his peers. So I really work hard at keeping the knuckleheads (they are after all fifteen year old boys) he hangs around with in the “right” category. I know I don’t want my kid travelling to and from that school on buses and trains with the typical Dallas sophomore. Nor do I relish the idea of the other commuters he might become friends with away from the Sauron like gaze of his father.
We are pretty lucky in that the Deuce seems to be enjoying his high school experience. The private high school worked for the Ace, and it appears that the same will be true for the Deuce.
Even with their “Gifted and Talented” programs (which are pretty much where all the white kids are in the Dallas public high schools), the typical Dallas public high school is a very tough place for a skinny white kid that likes computer games and the drama club. There just isn’t enough of them in those schools for the boys to be able to get through the day peacefully.
I’d never send my kid to the typical Dallas high school.
