| First, municipalities should not be wholly immune to the results of policies and maladministration that chase the tax base out. Second, even acknowledging a state responsibility for shoring up some of the poorer school districts, it should be only insofar as educational goals and "standard of care" are at stake. If suburban high schools want to waste money on swimming pools, that does not mean that inner city schools must have them.Third, when the issue in an inner city school district is basic skills, it is idle to worry over internet access, which, in any case, I can tell you from experience largely goes to waste in suburban schools. The adaptation of resources to need is much more important. Fourth, these are public policy decisions that should be made in the legislatures, with the participation of relevant executive officials, but do not particularly belong in the courts, especially if the court is going to use a mechanical notion of "equality" as a proxy for equity. Finally, the problem of the inner- city schools may not exercise the country club class, but they certainly exercise movement conservatives, and are the real concern behind vouchers and charter schools.......... |
