Seeing Like a School District

To a public school district, any money spent on intelligent students is wasted.

From a school district's perspective, the best use of an intelligent student is to let them rot in a chair while teachers and admins attend to more lucrative students.

There are some compassionate administrators who truly believe their school district should be for everyone, not just the students that can attract disproportionate funding, but they are fighting a battle against the incentives.

Three metrics matter to school districts: • Number of warm bodies • Number of fundable special situations (ESL, special ed, poverty, etc.) • Number of students meeting minimum test scores

The intelligent student does not attract any special funding.

The intelligent student's test scores can barely budge - turning a 98 into a 99 does not move the needle.

They are a warm body.

Their curiosity, their drive to learn more, is a problem to be dealt with.

A good teacher will hand them an advanced book and let them sit in the back of the class. Not all teachers are good, and not all school districts give teachers this freedom.

Absent a good teacher, the best case for the student is if the school district fears losing the intelligent student's high test scores to another district that caters more to their needs.

But it's actually way worse than that. The bottom 5% of school districts may receive scrutiny, but they also receive EXTRA FUNDING.

There are many great people in our school systems, which is why they aren't a complete dumpster fire, but they are fighting an uphill battle - and in most cases, losing.