The Alabama Board of Education Had Best Clean Up Its Act

[Wyrd of Gawd]

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This is a very complex issue that requires a long essay to give it justice.  But start by considering the question of fairness.  Is it fair to the more intelligent students with IQs of 110-140 to be held back by students with IQs of 70-90?  

Who benefits from having low performing students mixed in with high performing students?  Is it just a ploy to push the idea of school vouchers to enrich the operators of charter schools?

Based upon objective real world evidence what's the best outcome a student with learning disabilities can expect to achieve in modern America?  Is it better for all of the students if such students be mainlined or should those students be placed in an environment specifically tailored to their abilities?  

As a superpower on the world stage should we concentrate on producing the highest possible top achievers  to compete with the rest of the world or should we be satisfied with a pool of low achievers?  

And then there's the whole issue of foreign students.  Some are smart, some are not.  There are some school districts where the student body speak 130 different primary languages.

And of course there's the traditional problems of racial and class discrimination.  

Mix all of those things up in a school and you have a heck of a mess.

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Okay, so I've probably waited way too long to respond. But I'm not yet in necro territory, I believe.

Your first question about "fairness" is biased. Your assumption that low IQ students "hold back" high IQ students renders your question meaningless. As such, it doesn't deserve an answer.

As to your next question, the answer is that "everyone benefits". I can only be that general because I don't understand the connection you are attempting to make between inclusive schools and charter/voucher schools. Or how any of it amounts to a "ploy". Maybe it's a US/Canada kinda thing.

Moving on, based upon objective real world evidence what's the best outcome a student with learning disabilities anyone not in the upper quintile can expect to achieve in modern America? ... I think you are misidentifying the real problem.

Then on to the "world stage"... I'm flipping back and forth between WTF? and "What the hell does any of this have to do with being satisfied with a pool of low achievers?" At best, it's a false dichotomy.

Foreign students... in my school district, foreign students are a source of revenue, pure and simple. School districts across the province have embraced foreign students because they are basically free money. It's a necessity forced up them by 16 years of a right wing government deliberately underfunding public education. We actually have local districts competing with one another to attract foreign students as a way to make up for government funding shortfalls.

To me, it really boils down to whether you view public education as a budget liability, or as an investment in future prosperity. In my experience, right wing conservatives invariably choose the former. And to me, that is so obviously wrong, it leaves me shaking my head.

The current school model is on the verge of becoming obsolete and will be a thing of the past very soon.  The majority of human teachers will be replaced by robots who will be better able to interact with students on a one-on-one basis.  So teaching will become student specific, which will benefit everyone since the slower students won't become a drag on the more advanced ones.