If you put a group of kids of the same age together with little supervision you should expect "Lord of the Flies" behavior.
Yet the school system whines that home-schooled children don't get social interaction to try to eliminate the lack of revenue.
Even as a former school teacher, I think home schooling is fantastic. Baring that, something along the lines of one room school house with small groups of mixed ages is probably a much better situation. Putting large groups together as we do now just is not a very normal or natural way for kids to interact. It probably is the most cost effective way, but I think we need to sit down and have a conversation as a country and decide if schools are there to, educate kids, baby sit kids or be jobs programs for adults. They cannot do all 3 of those things effectively, so we need to choose. At the moment, it appears that a small group is pushing for them to do #3 to the detriment of #1. I don’t think the American public has really come to grips with that fact.
Yep, and this has been going on for some time.
In 1986, when my son was in 8th grade at public school, there was a kid who kept taking his lunch and flushing it down the toilet. He didn't want the food or anything. Just wanted to torment my son (who has always been quiet and thoughtful).
As you can imagine, my son was very reluctant to talk about it, but my wife and I detected something was not right at school. He finally told us the story and I immediately confronted the school principal.
Her (don't even get me started about that) answer to the problem ...this will equip your son to deal with life.
I pulled him out of the school the following week and put him in a private school where he flourished.
He now has his MBA in clinical psychology, and works helping troubled young people (late teens - early twenties) overcome adversity and prepare for careers.
Taking him out of public school was the BEST decision we could possibly have made. I watch the shenanigans in Wisconsin and I'm reminded that the days of sacrificing teachers is, for all intents and purposes, a thing of the past.