Ted Dintersmith

You know, I visit a lot of schools.

As I mentioned, in 2015 and 16, I went to every state and visited 200 schools.

And that ended up in my book, What School Could Be.

An example that sort of makes the broader point is in Mississippi, I visit one school, Lanier High in Jackson.

The building should be condemned.

I mean, the ceiling is falling apart.

The playground has broken glass all over.

And then you go like 12 miles away to Ridgefield, and it's like three football, you know, a major football stadium, two practice facilities.

Yeah.

And so I do think that, you know, while we put a lot of focus on Brown versus Board as a major Supreme Court decision, you know, maybe more important was Rodriguez versus San Antonio, where we basically said local property taxes can be the main driver for school funding.

And so the kids that need the least get the most.

The kids that get the most are the ones that are least needy.

And then the parents do weigh in.

And so it sort of reinforces.

And so you look at the overall flow.

And it's very hard to see how kids in more challenging circumstances might look at this as a fair shake.

Now, the thing I find, right, is that one of the things that I think amplifies the differences is that we have made school so darn boring.

You gotta do this just because you're assigned to do it.

And when that's the case, the rich families get tutors and they bribe their kid with an iPhone and they've got schools that have really compelling teachers that do it.

And it's very difficult for the kids in poor circumstances to keep up.