My takeaway from the NHJ discourse is that America continues to be unreasonably polarized between people who think the only thing that matters is the other students and the only thing that matters is funding. Managing the school is important! slowboring.com/p/why-i-send-…
Why I send my kid to low-income urban public schools

Why I send my kid to low-income urban public schools

Not every school with unfavorable demographics is a dysfunctional mess — policy matters!

slowboring.com

Sep 22, 2026 · 10:10 AM UTC

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It’s almost like you want to point a finger at 50 years of horrific mismanagement by teachers’ unions and civil rights law, but you just can’t
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I admire you for what you have done, but the reality is it’s the later grades where the consequences (if any) will be revealed. I wish your son and family luck.
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A conservative who got his GED, works with his hands, and doesn't think much about politics at all would have been able to tell NHJ and every center-left to far left PhD holder that their worldview on education is extremely flawed. "Phonics? Why would you get rid of that? I grew up on phonics... lowering standards? That makes no sense". Most conservatives, even if they aren't very bright, instinctively no you don't tear down "Chesterton's Fence" without good reason.
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The input is the output. Until welfare incentives make it harder to be ghetto, these places are going to stay ghetto. Diluting the dysfunction by mixing students together and shifting the bell curve back to the right makes the schools look better but it massively disenfranchises the high-achievers. Especially now that the DEI mobs want to scrap gifted programs bc they don’t like the enrollment demographics. Until that conversation is had honestly, the districts are making the private school choice for the parents.
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The unions only interest in managing schools is to maintain an increasing flow of tax dollars into their coffers. Educating children isn't even a secondary consideration.
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I'm continuously amazed that Americans continue to be so heavily invested in a failed status quo that the idea of privatizing the entire system never so much as shows up for even a brief consideration. Both sides in the popular consensus think that they can tweak education to make it better, despite no evidence that anything tried in the last three or four decades has done anything but turn children stupider and skyrocket costs.
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It’s amusing watching ppl bang their heads against a wall when the answer has been staring them in the face all along: government school monopolies are poor mechanisms for educating kids.
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I was raised and educated in Brooklyn in the 80s in probably a similar environment to your son. I learned how to deal with a “wide variety of social interactions”. I learned which side of the street I had to walk on in order to not get jumped. Now, raising my kids in a relatively affluent suburb of Chicago, and sending them to the local public schools, all I can say is, they have it much better than I did.
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The genetic composition of the students is all that matters, everyone knows this. Here’s a study I bet you haven’t read. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/article….
Image from LionsofLaw (@LionsofLaw)
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There are so many things that play into properly educating students. But parents can’t expect special interest and politicians to solve these problems. Read with your kids and do flash cards. You’ll very quickly learn if they can read and do math.
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Cane the bad student, then expel them. Cane and fine the parents thousands of dollars.
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As someone who has both coached and tutored, any student who is motivated can make a lot of progress.
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Matt. The vast majority are calling for replacing the admin in a failing school with competent, anti-DEI leaders. And bringing back consequences for problem kids, which is actually good for them. As usual, you miss the mark and please realize you are not some amazing philosopher.
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If you give schools more money because they have bad test scores, take a guess what you’ll get more of.
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But it’s racist to properly manage schools
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Managing the school is racist though.
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as long as the other students don't stab you, they have little effect on your education. Money spent has little effect. School management has little effect.
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A very good take
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100%, and I’d bet she’d agree with you.
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I spent 18 years finding and learning from high-performing and improving schools and districts that serve children of color and children from low-income homes. Lots of individual lessons to learn from them, but the biggest: school leadership is key.hep.gse.harvard.edu/97816825…
Schools That Succeed

Schools That Succeed

Informed by years of research and on-the-ground reporting, Schools That Succeed is Karin Chenoweth’s most inspiring and compelling book yet—an essential ...

hep.gse.harvard.edu
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We sent our mixed white/asian kids to public schools that were 70% Hispanic/Black with lots of low income kids... Rewarding, but not without difficulty. I feel our efforts including volunteer work at schools helped more than just our own kids. Glad we didn't go private or move !!
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Every right-winger I've personally known to get elected to a school board to "Change things!" has gotten his jets cooled pretty damned quick when they see the freaking bureaucratic mess districts are dealing with with mandates, IDEA, lawyered-up parents etc.
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I also send my kids to a Title I elementary schiol, though in a strong public school district. I’m struck by this point. Wouldn’t years of standardized testing have showed her daughter was behind. My kids do twice a year standardized testing in math and reading.
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You need funding to manage well, and I'm not talking about hiring more administrators. For a long time now, teachers have been told that they have to handle all behavior concerns short of outright assault in the classroom, while they are trying to teach. This is obviously bad. 1/
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Teacher unions make it impossible for anyone but the teachers unions to manage public schools, and declining test scores in Blue States where teacher unions run education policy show that is a disaster. But elected Democrats and their Democrat voters will not change this.
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NHJ is an identitarian. She believed that putting a Rich Person in a Poor Black School would make it a Rich School, and those are good. It simply doesn't occur to her that things happen because of what people do, rather than what they are.
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Schooling is a continuum Starts with infant & parents Then parents + kids + school management + teachers + other kids But the ballgame is parents. Parents who bug kids to do well in school & who keep bugging. Reason why some immigrant groups have 2nd generations that truly shine.
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It all comes down to parent involvement. The kids who perform at the top of their classes often have parents pushing them way more than the school does
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The teachers weren't working. And a lot of them are poorly educated themselves with the same faux advanced degrees as the faux HS diplomas they hand out yearly.
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Why do you ignore the research that showed demographers can predict aggregate test scores in an area with just two pieces of census tract data? Test scores reflect the capital (all kinds) of a community.
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nitter.cf/schull88/status/210204…
Seth Hull (@schull88) profile pictureSeth Hull@schull88Sep 21
Replying to @chrislhayes @JHWeissmann
Integration needs to be the ultimate goal. In the meantime, a criminally under-discussed lever in this discourse is the quality of school leadership. There are extremely high-performing leaders working in exactly these circumstances across NYC and the country—many of whom were…
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I think an underrated part of your situation is how much you dislike suburbs.
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bad initiatives will persist as long as there's lots of people who look at test score disparities, which even with better management will still exist, and conclude kids' experience of household wealth and financial security (or lack thereof) has a huge impact on their education.
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This has been a moronic debate. Set the scene for NHJ’s mea culpa: Blue State Blue County Blue City Blue School Admin Blue E-schools Blue Ed policies Union labor Massive spending, culminating in Massive Blue FAILURE
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Have U had UR kid read to U when he was in the 4th grade? Can UR kid do math that involves fractions? It *sounds* like NH-J didn't do anything like above, &, rather, she knew her kid was not learning at grade, but thought raising a social justice warrior was more important.
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Management, of course. Deming, The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education (1993 MIT) I think in 3rd edition.
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