Title I money is spread over virtually all Minnesota districts, and within schools cannot any longer be targeted to poor kids. Schools with poor kids get less money, as senior teachers, who can choose where they work, move to other schools. Newlyhired minority teachers are the first cut when enrollment turns down. Organizations behave the way they are structured and rewarded to behave. Districts know the reward-system pays off whether or not they change and improve and whether or not the students learn.
Kids have to go to school.
They go where they live. There's one organization offering public education. It's guaranteed its money per pupil. So it's assured its customers, its revenues, its jobs, its security - almost everything important to its material success. No reform can be effective that does not start with this failure in system design.