I think we need to eliminate public schools in this country. It's an unfair system, why should an 80 year old woman (or man) with no kids, have to pay to send someone else's kids to school. I think if we let tax payers keep their money that they would spend on public schools, they could use that money to send their kids to new private schools, that wouldn't be ran by the government. That way old Mrs. Henderson up the street with the ten cats doesn't have to pay for someone elses education.

I agree. Let's put an end to the public fool system.

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

Are you being sarcastic, or are you actually agreeing with me?

I'll go one further...

Close down public schools.

Ban teachers' unions. Make 'em PROVE their worth.

That's exactly what I think, close public schools. Cut down on taxes, make parents and only parents pay for education. Teacher's unions are stupid too. It's socialism, just like any other union.

Sadly, we can't count on some parents to be that responsible. For many kids, public school is their only opportunity for education.

.....how many people on here graduated from Public School?

Peace.

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people of power have NO good will and people of good will have NO power.

Frankly I'm sick of hearing people that can't understand how people are indirectly given higher quality of life by us having an educated population. People without kids benefit from more availability of good jobs, a workforce to fill said jobs, and reduced crime rates... not to mention maybe a little civic pride. If that's not the case I wonder why someone without kids would live in a locality with a higher millage going toward schools... Could it be that they are generally nice places to live?
You want to know why education is lame in this country? Because we thjnk of education as strictly a private good, a commodity that helps only the individual. Countries that actually take education seriously realize it's a public good too.
For all the whining we do in this country about education, we really do indicate a lot of contempt for the concept. With an anti-educational culture, you have crappy education. No policy will change that and the private sector will not magically save things.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III

My husband is a public school teacher (and he'll tell you that is one of the reasons our boys are homeschooled). He ran into one situation where a kid was passed (even though he was failing) so that the school wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

The public school system is (for the most part) a failing system that is sucking the financial life out of the community. If the local school systems had to compete for monies (if the money followed the student like it does in other countries and the student could go to private or alternative schools) then they'd get their act together or go out of business.

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Join the Right side

This overlooks the fact that there is great difference between one school district and another. It doesn't even always take a great distance of travel to find such disparities. I went to a crappy school. My wife went to an elite public school less than twenty miles away.
Ultimately it comes down to how much the community around the school values education. Are they willing to pay millage? Are they willing to do their part in getting kids prepared and kept up? Do they care enough to be hard on their kids instead of strong-arming teachers into giving a free pass?

If not, then privatization will do nothing. Competition is based on demand... and difference in public schools is based mostly on demand (also on the wealth of those demanding, to a lesser extent- but there have been some poor schools that have turned around in recent years... it's not all wealth). People get what they are willing to pay for in public schools, like it or not.

The crappy school districts of today, if privatized, would simply have private institutions that push their unmotivated kids through and are cheap enough to please the customers. Good school districts will produce good students, as they already do. The difference?
A poor person that saves up to move into a nice neighborhood so that the kid can go to a good district will be screwed when he has to pay out of pocket for an elite private school.

What we need is to improve schools for the kids that are behind. Privatization is a better-the-best-and-^#%#-the-rest idea. And really the kids in the top public schools don't need any more motivation or training than what they're getting.
Our top educated kids are as good or better than any in the world. It's the average kids that are being screwed.

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"It's never over... BOY!"
The Tall Man, Phantasm III