Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to What does it matter how I feel about it?

No, it *wouldn't* be fair.
Mary Anne — (archived)

It would mean that children who come from families who already have money would be able to command the attention of the most talented teachers, as well as already having good nutrition, appropriate clothes, varied and enriching leisure activities in safe settings, cutting edge technology, and lessons in "extra" subjects such as music. To make education entirely market-driven would guarantee that only those who could pay would get the bulk of the talent. Because of income discrepencies among school districts, we already have enough of that now.

There will always be missionaries who will, and can, do this work for little or nothing. Some of them are even talented, but some of them are just in it because they feel a calling, not because they have ability. (I was taught by nuns; I know.) Some people who would like to do their work for little or nothing can't afford to, because otherwise they will join the ranks of the needy whom they would like to serve.

Unless we are ready to say that children from poor backgrounds are worth intrinsically less as people than children from families with more money, and deserve less investment, we need to fund education for everyone. The poor children of the nation ought not to have to be beholden to our domestic missionaries in order to have a ghost of a chance in a supposedly equal-opportunity society.

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