My first computer ! My dad bought one when I was 23 years old ! It was eventually replaced with a BBC Model B , but it is my earliest memory of computing <| sep |> It ' s also what someone says when they could be fine without them . I ' ll regularly take two to four weeks off anything just to make that assessment . <| sep |> It ' s not about people ' s voices being heard , it ' s about winning and not winning . <| sep |> In order to understand the issue , you also need to understand how regular public schools are funded mainly through local taxes , which are mainly based on property value . The amount of money a school has to spend on each student is directly related to how wealthy the area is , as reflected by the estimated value of everyone ' s homes . A townschool district with a tourist ski mountain dotted with rich folks ' winter condos , for which they pay the town property tax every year , but in which no actual schoolkids live , is going to have a large pile of cash to play with . A district crowded with lowincome housing projects is going to have a much smaller perkid pile . Each state has its own way to try and balance this out , from selling lottery tickets to forcing each district to contribute to a pool from which $$ is then disbursed based on need , and the federal gov ' t also contributes through various programs , but the main funding is still based on a formula derived when people were farmers and your acreage equaled your wealth . Back when schools were first set up , if you had a tall house and long barn and broad fields , you were probably selling a lot of cornbeefmilk for cash , so you had to give a bunch to the school . If your housebarnyard was small , you were probably not making a big cash profit , so you gave less . It worked ok at the time . These days not so much . The funny thing is , kids who need the most from the school , since they ' re not getting it at home , nutrition ? special ed ? behavior intervention ? afterschool care ? are also usually kids whose parents have the least , have homes whose property value is lowest and give the least what a coincidence ! Which means districts filled with gracious homes have a big pile and can pay for , oh , pools and concert halls . And districts filled with housing projects have to scuffle for printer paper . tldr 1 The town decides how much your property is worth and makes you pay a chunk based on that every year , and that ' s where most of the school money comes from . Rich people have big houses and pay lots so their kids have great schools poor people have poor houses and pay less so their kids get poor schools . tldr 2 the ones that haves , gets more . The ones that don ' t , gets less . tldr 3 it ' s archaic and fucked up .