Manifesto+for+a+new+school+system


 * Elitism**

There should be only one school system available. The children of poor families should be taught along side the children of middle class and rich families. This is to ensure that the beneficial influence of middle class and rich parents (in terms of the time they spend assisting and supporting the school that their children attend) is not primarily limited to a parallel, self selecting set of schools.

-> challenge: are parents of MC and R kids proportionally more likely to contribute time to their school and their childrens' education? To what extent do poorer parents also do this? -> challenge: how to prevent self selection of schools socially by area? -> moral hazard: will the MC/R parents be less likely to support the school if there is a broader intake and there is less need to "keep up with the jones'" coupled with a feeling that their contribution will be diluted by the fact that other parents will not be contributing, leading to less incentive to contribute. -> any attempt to prevent their being a second tier of schools would likely result in additional tutoring being paid for outside of school.


 * Religion**

The presence of religion on schools should WITHOUT EXCEPTION be determined by the application of two rules: 1) No religion should be allowed to promote itself with a school. 2) Religious groups could contribute to the curriculum through the teaching of morality, but this must be from a multi-faith perspective, including humanism and atheism.