Beyond the fact that this is an editorial written by a college student for a libertarian youth org, the arguments here are very unsubstantial. By my count, there is one actual argument: that parents who afford it will pull kids out of public school to go to a private one. But private schools themselves don't distinguish between gifted or not courses, typically, its one education experience you pay for. So either you can test into accelerated programs at public, or just go to a private school if you have the money. As they say in the article, "They will find ways to stay ahead." Got it.
Doesn't this argument in fact show us why maybe something like this is necessary?? If a single curriculum private school is the answer for these rich parents when the public school drops GT programs, then the system is already not "equitable." It paints this picture that GT is already a compromise "we will put more resources into kids... but only if they deserve it." Because presumably, that's all they can afford.
This shows at the end of the day its just about money, and we are already settled that we wont give public schools at large the money that they need, so we set up little challenges and give resources to those kids that show merit rather than on some kind of principled serious pedagogy (and that is not even getting into the fact, as the writer again notes, that this "merit" that is calculated is based off of standardized tests, which are incredibly fraught with problems and conflicts of interest in themselves, but more importantly are hugely profitable private companies with incredible lobbying power, and we should maybe ask why this part of the equation isn't really talked about in these conversations).
If the writer wants to respect, as they say, that everyone learns differently, it seems to me that the answer is to remove merit based GT programs and put money into education in general, for everyone. Also abolishing standardized testing.
Doesn't this argument in fact show us why maybe something like this is necessary?? If a single curriculum private school is the answer for these rich parents when the public school drops GT programs, then the system is already not "equitable." It paints this picture that GT is already a compromise "we will put more resources into kids... but only if they deserve it." Because presumably, that's all they can afford.
This shows at the end of the day its just about money, and we are already settled that we wont give public schools at large the money that they need, so we set up little challenges and give resources to those kids that show merit rather than on some kind of principled serious pedagogy (and that is not even getting into the fact, as the writer again notes, that this "merit" that is calculated is based off of standardized tests, which are incredibly fraught with problems and conflicts of interest in themselves, but more importantly are hugely profitable private companies with incredible lobbying power, and we should maybe ask why this part of the equation isn't really talked about in these conversations).
If the writer wants to respect, as they say, that everyone learns differently, it seems to me that the answer is to remove merit based GT programs and put money into education in general, for everyone. Also abolishing standardized testing.