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Originally Posted by JN01
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It couldn't possibly work, when the stated (and real) intent was to reduce the number of "disadvantaged" students arrested for crimes. The problem is that, once there's an initial "improvement" in statistics, the powers that be want to see continued improvement. So it starts by ignoring misdemeanors, and the statistics look better. But more serious crimes continue, and once you've completely stopped reporting misdemeanors, the only way to show continuing improvement is to incrementally ignore more and more serious offenses.
A few years ago I read a series of articles about a grammar school principal who was ultimately canned for much the same sort of Ponzi scheme, except in her case it was grades rather than crimes. To make her school look better, she started changing grades. The school started being written up as a success and she was being widely praised. The problem was, the dumb kids weren't any less dumb, and to continue showing improvement year after year she had to change more grades every year, and by greater margins. I think (IIRC) it fell apart when someone finally realized that the kids coming into middle school from this award-winning grammar school weren't doing any better than kids from the other schools in the city. Then someone started an investigation, and the truth came out. Bye-bye career in education. (Although by then I'm sure she qualified for her pension, so she probably just retired.)
You can't fake statistics to show non-existent improvements forever. It just doesn't take long for it to catch up with you.