Maggie's Farm

Good School, Rich School; Bad School, Poor School - The inequality at the heart of America’s education system.

Why is that approach in error? 

Because there is no evidence that education dollars correlate with schools' success. Rich schools are not the "best" schools, but kids in schools in more prosperous districts tend to perform best because kids perform best in areas where the parents tend to have their act together.

It's the kids that make a school look "good", not the school itself. Teachers want to teach but not all kids are interested in this project. For example, in my state student performance correlates almost exactly to the average town income, regardless of per pupil expenditures (which tend to be highest in "low-performing" urban schools). Thus the "best schools" are in solidly middle-to-upper-middle class, homogeneous towns with no new immigrants, no out of wedlock kids, and minimal social dysfunction.

Schools do not "perform." Kids perform, or not.

Education does not cost too much. Just ask any home-schooler, or any Charter School.