The aim was to increase quality by competition, but it has also led to the best students flocking to the same schools.Many worry that school inequality will spur segregation.
The cap limits property tax hikes to 2 percent, which may sound fair but actually contributes to school inequality: the permitted tax increase raises a lot more revenue from million-dollar homes for wealthy schools than it raises on $100,000 homes for poorer schools.
Simply put, there are far more factors to school inequality than just income inequality.
If research on recreational activities has mainly focused on educational benefits and has shown certain positive results on at-risk populations (Durlak et al. 2010), we do not know if the use of such services would have any impact on school inequalities in Belgium, and therefore on school achievement.
Nevertheless, the temptation would be great to label recreational services as part of a toolset to counter school inequalities, especially since the educational system in Belgium is known to increase social inequalities (PISA 2012), and preschool participation being less frequent among migrant families (European commission et al. 2014).
The evidence, albeit based on questionable data, of relegation in the international standards league table is of concern, but by far the greatest weakness of our system – huge class-related inequalities in outcome – is much more to do with factors outside school (economic inequality and the effect of parental choices) than inside.
"Things going on at home or in those early years before kids enter school and inequality between different types of families" could be playing a role, he said.
In her 1985 book, "Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality," Dr. Jeannie Oakes, a professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles, observed 25 middle schools and high schools across the country and found diminished expectations and less-challenging assignments in the lower levels.
"Private schooling turns inequality of outcome into inequality of opportunity – as the wealthy buy better outcomes for their children.
Some 60 years after then prime minister, Robert Menzies, first decided to equally fund students in both government and non-government schools, educational inequality has become entrenched.
"The kids who are thought of as the least able end up with the fewest opportunities and resources and positive learning environments," said Jeannie Oakes, author of "Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality," a popular critique of grouping.
