Vouchers: Private Schools Cost Model
Today I got the following message from the Post Crescent:
I had been wondering if my colorful analogy would make it to the paper. I didn't intend to sexualize our students-- though in retrospect, I can see how contextually someone may quickly jump to a quite uncharitable interpretation of my meaning. To be clear, my aim was to use some attention-getting language to illustrate how averages create surreal distortions. The language I used are terms I would expect my daughter (11 years old) would know from her school, of which I would use to discuss with her without embarrassment.
My response above, which has been run through AI for tightening up the verbiage, has some tell-tale AI slop in it. As I re-read it, I hear a lot of repetition, and I notice how AI likes to produce a punchy last sentence to paragraphs. Nonetheless, I stand by those sentiments as my own.
Below, I would like to take some time to explicate how I understand the problem of the voucher system in terms that I can refer back to, and update if I learn more that informs the model. One of my favorite professors said:
"Good analytics doesn't usually give you the answer, it improves your intuition."
I build this model to help me intuit how the voucher system of fund sharing works in practice. If the image below is too grainy, access, download, and critique the file here; I genuinely welcome any effort to help refine my ideas.
My model below displays how the incentives are skewed to private schools due to the interplay of the following facts:
- Static value per voucher per student.
- Private schools' ability to deny students enrollment.
- Variable costs to educate students.
It probably would have been more prudent of me to point out that we're as likely to find a single student who costs $10,877 to educate as we are to find an average adult with one ovary and half a scrotum:
Comments
Post a Comment