The only kids now getting a “fair to good” education are the Asian kids with driven parents, or the kids that go to top private schools that take high achievers.
Anyone over age of 40 probably got in at the tail end of good public education. Everyone else, it is pure luck if you can get a good or even fair education.
I have to disagree with most of your post.
For every horrible school there are great ones. I’ve been lucky enough to only experience great ones. But I’ve sure had family in horrible ones.
The state tests are useless anyway - they’re not “graded” like you may think they are. Scores are “scaled” and whatever political result is desired is achieved. For instance, 51% correct answers on a recent Georgia state test was “scaled” to 82. How can someone who shows mastery of 51% of material get an 82? ===> politics.
“Education is dropping” as you say because fewer parents [and kids] value education. It’s that simple.
jmho
>>Anyone over age of 40 probably got in at the tail end of good public education. Everyone else, it is pure luck if you can get a good or even fair education.<<
I’m 27. Things may be worse now, but “in my day” you could still get a good education if you stuck to the advanced/honors courses. Those were geared to kids who were actually interested in learning and willing to be challenged. In my junior year, a scheduling conflict forced me to drop down into the “high”-level class (one step down from advanced) for my 20th century history course. It was such a comedown that even the 16-year-old version of me was appalled. We spent most of our class time on things like coloring maps and making collages. Just a taste of the education you apparently get if you go through public school taking the “high” courses.
My high-school daughter takes honors classes (the equivalent of normal classes when I was in school). In her on non-honors class she was bored at the simplicity of the curriculum and amazed at the abject stupidity of her classmates.
Many children are just not interested in education, and neither are their parents. The world needs ditch diggers too, I guess. We don’t have public schools; we have a publically funded daycare system.