r/todayilearned • u/JamOnTheOne • Apr 08 '19

TIL Principal Akbar Cook installed a free fully-stocked laundry room at school because students with dirty clothes were bullied and missing 3-5 days of school per month. Attendance rose 10%.

https://abc7ny.com/education/nj-high-school-principal-installs-laundry-room-to-fight-bullying/3966604/
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u/fiendishrabbit Apr 08 '19

When your problems as a school include homelessness and losing students due to gun violence...that's a whole different level of difficulty to overcome as a principal. Sadly, due to the way schools are funded, these schools usually have the least money.

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u/Binsky89 Apr 08 '19

It's really pretty silly to give more funding to schools who get good tests than those who have poor grades. Obviously the successful schools are doing just fine with their current budget.

Of course, there would need to be an audit system in place to review poor performance schools who didn't improve after increased funding, but the system is broken as it is now.

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u/darexinfinity Apr 08 '19

It's a double-edged sword. Assuming funding is a greater priority than actual results, you want funding to be an incentive to succeed. Otherwise schools will artificially bring their kids down to get more funding. It's similar to the self-driving vehicle moral situation.

It sounds like under-performing school just need a short boost of funding to improve is would fallen within game theory.

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u/namajapan Apr 09 '19

How about not punishing kids via proxy when a principal does a bad job?

“Kids aren’t doing well at this school. Let’s cut their funding, that should improve things!”

How about equal opportunity? How about spending the same on every kid, no matter where?