[Scenic Sounds]

Cathryn Crawford's latest!!

[Scenic Sounds]

Cathryn Crawford Ping!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Adjectives! That's what I like to see! Adjectives! ;0)

[July 4th]

A great article, very clearly laid out. Nice job!

[Sir Gawain]

The only viable solutions that can be seen are either complete privatization of the public school system, or, barring that, school vouchers.

Giving power back to the states will solve many of the problems we're seeing today. Education would be one of them. We should study the early American educational system and understand why they did it that way, and understand why it was right. Educational control (along with a lot of other things) belongs at the township, and at worst, the state level.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP

[wizardoz]

You go, girl!

[only1percent]

The problem isn't schools being public or private, the problem is irresponsible and/or powerless parents. Public schools where most of the parents are responsible, and where the parents effectively control the schools by way of a locally-elected school board more afraid of parents than of the teachers union, do just fine.

The public schools in my neighborhood outperform the local Catholic and independent schools by almost any measure. (In a 180-degree twist from the urban model, the expensive local independent school is regarded as a place where parents send lazy or discipline-problem kids who can't cut it in the demanding public school environment...)

[1Old Pro]

there is another issue that is of deep and long-lasting importance that seldom gets the attention that it deserves – the demise of the public school system in America.

The truth alert meter reads 100% with this statement.

[aristeides]

What about homeschooling? The government may make a bad parent, but parents make excellent teachers, certainly in comparison with the products of education colleges. And fostering homeschooling will strengthen the family. Finally, homeschooling is how most people were educated before the 19th century. (Our Founding Fathers were not the products of government schools.)

[jmc813]

Wonder how long it will take the public school groupies to show up and post a picture of that 14 year-old kid.

[BeerSwillr]

Blah, Blah, Blah.

I'm sure she has correctly depicted many schools and school districts, but many more are not like this at all. You know what the difference is? Parental involvement, not only in the schools, but with the children at home.

You can't make a broad brush statement and say that Americas schools are failing because they are not. Granted some are, and those schools are the ones making the headlines. Most schools are doing a good job educating their children.

"The only viable solutions that can be seen are either complete privatization of the public school system, or, barring that, school vouchers."

This is the proof that what I say is true. School vouchers don't do a dem thing to make schools better, but they do give a parent the option of moving their child out of a poorly performing school district, and into a better one.

[EdReform]

BTTT

read later...

[Tribune7]

ping

[kesg]

The only viable solutions that can be seen are either complete privatization of the public school system, or, barring that, school vouchers.

In the long run, only the complete, absolute abolition of socialized education -- with extreme prejudice -- will solve the problems identified in the article. Socialism cannot work in theory in education any better than it can work in theory anywhere else -- which is why it is such a miserable failure in practice in everything it touches.

[c-b 1]

PING

[honeygrl]

Great article! The one and only thing that bothers me with the school vouchers is that I wonder what the government will do to the private schools if they get one little toe in the door. I can see them trying to regulate what they can and can't teach, trying to take religion out of them as well, and trying to "diversify" them. I could see the vouchers being their one little toe in the door too, unfortunately. Can you imagine the lawsuits when students who claim to be gay have parents who want to use vouchers to get their kid into a Christian school and the school saying "Nope"? And the way our court system is behaving these days, the school may not win a fight like that.

[leprechaun9]

It would be very useful if to define EDUCATION!

I have monitored the results of statewide testing (public schools only - the State of New Jersey does not test private schools) for about 15 years. The Education industry is sucking billions of dollars out of the public cash register every year to feed their appetite with no sign of any abatement. The results of their own tests show that educating students is not a principal goal.

I have asked many people, including educators, administrators, and legislators to define education and more than half of them told me that it is the red brick building down the street!

As long as the public swallows the tripe of "IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN", the situation will only continue to deteriorate!

[hattend]

Well Done...BTTT

[Sparta]

The easiest solution is to abolish the government schools and let parents pick which school services they want their child to have.

[petitfour]

The problem lies within the very foundation of public education – the notion that education itself entails parenting and raising children instead of educating them. ************************ I don't recall being taught that the foundation of public education entails parenting and raising children. Is there some source for this statement? It may be true that liberals believe that educators should have a role in raising children, but it isn't THE foundation of public education.