"First, why should we even have government schools?"
Because we learned a long time ago that an educated citizenry makes for a stronger, freer country than an ignorant citizenry.
People can argue all they want about the details of how this concept is applied, but I suspect there is general agreement that the concept is valid.
"Because we learned a long time ago that an educated citizenry makes for a stronger, freer country than an ignorant citizenry."
I believe that more than anyone.
And that is why I don't believe in government schools.
Education is WAYYY too important to be left to the government.
Maybe I should ask the question this way to clarify: Why should we have GOVERNMENT schools?
But that is another topic and I doubt if the posters on this thread want to go too far down that road.