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My public school education was ruined by disruptive students. This was in the 1970s. If you ever saw the TV show "Welcome Back Kotter", that was like my inner-city high school. Except the "sweathogs" weren't so nice and the teachers were even more feckless than Gabe Kaplan's character.

Good thing I developed an early love of books and never stopped reading. That's what saved me from a wasted life.

I made sure I raised my own kids in a bedroom suburb with a first-class public school system. Not perfect by any means but troublemakers were dealt with and even expelled occasionally.

In the inner cities (run by liberals nearly 100% of the time), troublemakers are coddled and as a result, very few inner city children get the education they need to improve their socioeconomic situation in adulthood. (Should mention that the liberals running these cities mostly send their kids to private schools).

Should also mention that my elementary years in public school were for the most part pretty solid. I went to first grade in 1968 and back then, there was a strict dress code for students (I'm talking public schools). Boys had to wear shirt and ties and girls had to wear dresses or skirts.

This all started to change by the mid 1970s. Middle school was still somewhat dress up but sneakers and jerseys began to be allowed. By junior high school, all dress code went out the window and kids started showing up in ripped jeans, Led Zeppelin T-shirts and leather jackets.

Maybe it was just coincidence but the schools got rougher as the dress code devolved. I still have class pictures from the early grades of elementary and all the kids are smiling in their shirts and ties and dresses. In my high school yearbook, most looked sullen and angry.