OK, do you know if they pay those teachers differently or why the teachers would be substandard? Why is it that the kids in the other district don't fare as well? I'm not familiar with California's public education funding. I would just imagine it's more progressive than Alabama's, a real stretch. But I can give you a link to show our district by district funding. I can go down that list and tell you that the majority of the top 10, top 20, are largely minority students. I can't imagine if Alabama is doing this that California isn't funding those districts in at least equal amounts.
I go back to my earlier statement of what my wife experienced when she taught in a poorer district, it's the family and parental involvement. The kids she remembers sticking out because their parents were involved largely have gone on to graduate, do much better in comparison to those who didn't. I'm assuming that you went to PTA meetings, meet the teachers, got emails or communicated with your child's teachers. From what she's said, our friends who teach in those districts say now, that is the exception there, not the rule. I think MAC posted something similar to this earlier, but it's a heavy undertaking for the state to fix a parenting issue. It's noble to try, but a lot of the outcome disparity is because of lack of a family unit at home to support the student. When we talk giving someone the right tools to succeed, it all starts there. And I admit, I don't know how we fix that root cause.