Time to write off public education?

[TomCollins]

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I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] my public HS education.

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There are good public High Schools out there. You just may have to move. That's the beauty of decentralization.

[natedogg]

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I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] my public HS education.

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There are good public High Schools out there. You just may have to move. That's the beauty of decentralization.

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Tell that to the poor who are stuck in bad school districts.

natedogg

[TomCollins]

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I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] my public HS education.

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There are good public High Schools out there. You just may have to move. That's the beauty of decentralization.

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Tell that to the poor who are stuck in bad school districts.

natedogg

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And having it privitized will make things different how? My point is that the more decentralized something is, the easier it is for some good to come from it.

If you want to get on board with vouchers, a further form of decentralization, this only furthers the point. If we are going to pay for schooling of the poor anyway, this is the obvious best way to solve it.

I don't see how what i said disagrees with any of your points?

[TomCollins]

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Why then do American's perform better and catch up in college, while Japanese kids for the most part dick around the whole time.

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I am not sure where you are getting this info. The Japanese dick around the whole time in college?

[natedogg]

One thing that bears repeating: In our current system of implementing public education for all, is it the poor who are getting screwed. In many cases, they are hardly better off than if we just let them flounder AC-style.

natedogg

[TomCollins]

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One thing that bears repeating: In our current system of implementing public education for all, is it the poor who are getting screwed. In many cases, they are hardly better off than if we just let them flounder AC-style.

natedogg

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This isn't 100% accurate. There are poor areas of good school districts. In a purely monetary system, they would have to rely on scholarships or donations that may or may not be there.

[revots33]

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The Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind act both come to mind. The ever-increasing stranglehold that the teachers' unions have is another. I'm sure there's more.

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Like parents who see the public school as a free babysitter and have zero involvement with their child's education?

Seriously it's easy to blame teachers' unions and government ineptitude... but the biggest problem IMO is that there are too few parents who give a crap. Thus their kids don't give a crap, thus the students who DO give a crap are surrounded by student's who don't, and good teachers eventually have their idealism broken by all the kids/parents who obviously don't give a crap.

I think we need to make all schools have competitive admissions (like colleges do) so that the smart kids with involved parents can get a good education and the free babysitting can be done elsewhere.

[natedogg]

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The Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind act both come to mind. The ever-increasing stranglehold that the teachers' unions have is another. I'm sure there's more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Like parents who see the public school as a free babysitter and have zero involvement with their child's education?

Seriously it's easy to blame teachers' unions and government ineptitude... but the biggest problem IMO is that there are too few parents who give a crap. Thus their kids don't give a crap, thus the students who DO give a crap are surrounded by student's who don't, and good teachers eventually have their idealism broken by all the kids/parents who obviously don't give a crap.

I think we need to make all schools have competitive admissions (like colleges do) so that the smart kids with involved parents can get a good education and the free babysitting can be done elsewhere.

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My mother is a california teacher and she has come to the same conclusion. She believes the biggest problem we have with the school system is that it is compulsory. I agree with her that it is one of the biggest problems.

natedogg

[jogsxyz]

http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-023.html

Here's a link to Milton Friedman's essay in favor of private schools.