Charter Schools and Their Enemies

What Hacker News says

1. tlearDec 2022
   Parents dump the schools with teachers who are members of the union. Union has less money to pay the politicians of a certain party. Of course boards also get paid per student head, student who goes to a school that is not part of that farm (charter, private whatever..) is not bringing in the cash.

   It is pretty straightforward economic self interest. I can recommend Sowell's book "Charter schools and their enemies" it lays out the setup quite well.

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2. rahimnathwaniNov 2021
   I moved to the US only 2 years ago, so am still learning about the system. As far as I can tell, the reasons for not using standardized test scores (such as the SAT and ACT) are that:

   1. Using only these scores would boost the proportion of elite university places awarded to Asians, who are already 'overrepresented' relative to their share of the population. Propel state various reasons why this is undesirable (equity/diversity, don't want everyone on campus to be 'the same') and unstated reasons (racism against Asians).

   2. Blacks and Hispanics are 'underrepresented' at elite colleges relative to their respective shares of the population. The argument here is that these outcomes are prima facie due to 'systemic racism', i.e. not necessarily overt racist acts, but things in the system that together result in worse outcomes for certain ethnic groups.

   If you want to read more about these topics, a few starting points:

   1. Recent news (and Twitter discussions) about the University of California dropping the SAT.

   2. Recent news about Lowell High School switching from partially-merit-based admission, to lottery-based admission. (And the court order from a few days ago, declaring this switch null and void.)

   3. Thomas Sowell's books 'Economic facts and fallacies' and 'Charter schools and their enemies'. One of the points in these books (which include data) is that, when you adjust for things like parental educational level, number of parents in home, differences in outcomes between ethnic groups' career success often lessen or disappear altogether.

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3. srequeSep 2021
   I think there have been enough studies now to show that the problem with most public schools in the U.S. have little or nothing to do with underfunding. Thomas Sowell's recent book, "Charter Schools and their enemies", shows that Charter schools with less funding can insanely outperform public schools they compete with in inner cities, even though the public schools have more funding per student.

   https://www.amazon.com/Charter-Schools-Enemies-Thomas-Sowell...

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4. beanerJul 2020
   You can start with supporting charter schools. They're public schools that are allowed to push out of typical restrictions and teach children in new ways. Overall, they're an excellent investment and the data shows that they work. They face many strong and sad political challenges. There's a recent book called Charter Schools and their Enemies that is a good read about the story of them.
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5. tathougiesAug 2020
   Words take on new meanings. Look... you're expecting me to continue to defend a man who has written dozens of full-length books explaining his positions. I'm not going to respond to your claims on charter schools because Sowell has just released a new book called 'charter schools and their enemies', which goes very in depth into his support of charter schools. I haven't read it yet, but I imagine it would contain his response to studies like the ones you posted.
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6. beanerJul 2020
   I'll read yours if you read mine! I think Charter Schools and their Enemies may contain some stuff on CA schools but I haven't gotten that far yet. It starts out talking about NYC schools. It literally contains tables of data. I know that neither of us can come to a well-rounded conclusion without putting in a good faith effort to listen to arguments from both sides. It would be nice to be able to come back after doing so and continue the discussion.
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