Gov. Larry Hogan’s imminent choice about the Purple Line will play a large role in defining whether his first year in office steers his Maryland Republican Party toward the middle or gives Democrats a cudgel to beat him as an anti-spending ideologue.
…Hogan’s continuing doubts about the project’s cost and benefits show he still shares some anti-transit views that he and his conservative supporters have long championed.
So, if you are not on board with the view that the benefits of this project exceed the costs, then you are “anti-transit” and an “ideologue.”
In general, I find the WaPo’s front page to be more loaded with left-wing rhetorical framing than is its editorial page. And I find that its Metro section is more loaded with left-wing rhetorical framing than its front page.
One of my pet peeves is the metro section’s constant reference to the “excellent reputation” of Montgomery County schools. What the schools have is a reputation for having an excellent reputation, but (and I have pointed this out in emails to Wapo reporters) the test scores for Montgomery County schools are close to the median for all counties in the state, even though Montgomery County spends way more than the median on a per-student basis.
In fact, if you plot the percent of students that perform well on tests against percent of students not on free and reduced meals, Montgomery County schools fall right in line. Statewide, the percentage of non-FARMs students is what drives school outcomes, and spending per student makes no difference. The null hypothesis wins again.
Terrible. Couldn’t get credit for actually studying the economics of these projects. .. no no no… that’s BIASED!
In the minds of Washington Post metro writers and editors, Montgomery County has “excellent” schools because it spends excessively on them.* More costly schools are axiomatically more excellent. Inputs, not outputs, are the measure of excellence in schools.
*Mainly on bloated, featherbedded staffing, of course.
“In fact, if you plot the percent of students that perform well on tests against percent of students not on free and reduced meals, Montgomery County schools fall right in line. Statewide, the percentage of non-FARMs students is what drives school outcomes, and spending per student makes no difference.”
If you believe Krueger & Dale, that applies to Ivy League universities. If schools couldn’t free-ride on the quality of their student populations, just what *would* they free ride on?
My challenge still stands. 1. If they are so good at teaching, why don’t we see them kidnapping inner city kids and whisking them off to an education. 2. Can they teach others to catch up?
Somebody needs to get to the bottom of what they a putting in those FARMs.
As a parent with young children living in Montgomery county, do you have a suggestion for an alternative to the public schools?
I do not believe that the schools cause harm, just that they do nothing particularly good for the huge amount that taxpayers spend on them. I would not recommend private schools unless you have lots of money to spare. Of those, I like Sandy Spring Friends, in spite of the hippie-Quaker ideology.
Thanks very much, Professor Kling.