[truemiester]

Public school = Public disgrace.

If teachers could not be tenured and had to fight to keep their jobs due to competion then they would turn out a decent "product".

Maybe we should 'outsource' education to private schools!

[moog]

If teachers could not be tenured and had to fight to keep their jobs due to competion then they would turn out a decent "product".

Tenure? What's tenure?

[Old North State]

These expenditure numbers are significantly understated. They do not include capital outlays for buildings and infrastructure. Here in North Carolina the total per pupil expenditure is over 10K. The state is growing quickly, so that number may not be proportionally representative of the entire nation, but the expenditures are still low-balled.

[Teacher317]

I am an avid pro-capitalist, but adding in competition alone won't change much, other than turnover rates. The kids would quickly learn that the teacher's desperation to get them to perform stems from their desire to remain employed... and there are no better manipulators than 8th graders with compliant parents and a legal system that hamstrings faculty. My guess is that cheating by teachers would increase exponentially, and that real education would remain stagnant.

Give the teachers significant classroom control again, along with that individual responsibility and accountability, and you have a far better chance for realizing true success.

Sadly, that would mean we'd have to actually trust teachers again, and de-fang the lawyers... and neither seems terribly likely in the foreseeable future.