Socialism fails everywhere it's tried and the public school system is no different.

It doesn't cost much to educate children, and when free enterprise is allowed to flourish there will be affordable private schools for all incomes.

And let's face it, there is a certain class of people who don't give a flying crap about their children and whose children don't give a flying crap about their education. They have an astoundingly high drop out rate and spending money on their education is a waste of resources.

We can't fire incompetent teachers ! the unions won't allow it. There lies the problem ! That's why the voucher system was introduced, to draw demand away from bad schools with bad teachers that are protected by....the NEA. Simple economics, ever heard of 'supply and demand' ? ( probably not if you are a product of a poor public school )
There was a study done awhile back on amount of money spent on public schools, it showed school districts that spent more money per student provided lower education while schools in smaller communities with less funding provided a better education. Proves throwing more money at the problem doesn't fix it. HMMM...maybe family values and less government may have something to do with that ?

Yes illuminating the unions would lower some wages, bringing them in line with the private sector wages. The largest union in the country is the federal workers, why do you think our government is so incompetent ? Even a product of the public school system can figure that out !

Easy solution end Public schools alltogether. Free market would do a much better job at it.

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"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

I think that no child is ready to accept formal education till they can understand the ramification of education, and it is a waste of resources trying to force it on them.

Some never do, but we will allways need in a capitalist soc "industrial cannon fodder"

I would like to see home education to the age of 11yrs, where they will gain a better understanding of the real world from responsible parents.

I would then have them graded, and educated in the relevant skills they enjoyed and comprehended at home,

The ones that showed no interest I would place in military academy's,we are short of idiots to take up arms

I would also make adults take an exam before allowing them to procreate, and steralise those how fail.

We could create a master race and I could be Fuhrer( have I spelled that right)

No standing up to unions and socialists is not going to magically fix anything, its just a good start. Next step is to get rid of politions in our central government that listen to and are put there by the unions. The only people that need to worry about job security are those that are not performing to their pay level, those rats need to go somewhere, I hear Canada has a good health care system.
Respect ? Teachers that are dedicated to education and actually do educate our kids are very highly respected. Those that feed off the public trough and do not perform are not, it's sad that a few "bad apples" have so much control to bring the whole system down.

Its funny that the last bastion of the hard left within unions overhere,is the teachers union.

Its also interesting that most of the time when strike's happen(rarely) that parent's and pupil's support them.

Our education system is flawed (kids are taught religious education, but politics may only be taught from a historic point of view,not the teacher's, for example) but it is still held in high regard by some

Free enterprise is crap. Private companies are only going to build schools where rich people live and they are going to ignore rural areas. Thats why almost every developed country has a public school system, it bridges the disparities that the private system has failed to resolve.

Thats also why basic education is listed as a right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries understand the importance of education for development. I know people who are in private schools and there are some benefits to it, benefits which you have to pay substancially more to get. My experience in public school was great. Never had any problems with quality.

If you want to go backwards, then great, abolish public education. If anything the states should be allowed to decide which type of education system they want. Decentralization is a concept the US should start to adopt. It might help.

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"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." — John Stuart Mill

Well to get education to rural areas the Private schools would get Goverment subsidies to make it profitable.

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"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

This was 8 years ago, imagine the cost now!

good point.
not only will they not build new schools,
there aren't enough private schools in rural areas now to give every student a choice of private or public education.
if you take away public schools, most rural kids will have no schools at all.
most of the private schools that do exist are religion based.
no problem if parents or students choose a religious education,
but it shouldn't be forced on them by lack of choice.
i'm sure public education sucks,
but it makes a general education available to every student.

i don't really blame the system for bad results,
i blame the students more.
most of them just dont care.
it doesn't matter how much we spend on them,
or what kind of school they attend.

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