[campbellcj]

Z-Man, frankly although I fully agree that there are some heroes in our public school system -- and your wife may well be one of them, for which I am appreciative -- I believe they are few and far between.

I also question that the parents are to blame for the failure of our schools. A parent has the ultimate responsibility for the child's welfare, of course, but our entire system is based on the concept of having the parent(s) work during the day, while the kids are in school in the care of the pros!

Your average parent in a metropolitan area is struggling to keep food on the table, and the lights and heater running. Note that I said "parent" singular, as this is all too often the situation. At the end of the day, everyone is exhausted, and so the TV comes on and the brains switch off.

One of the core issues is that Americans talk a whole lot about improving the educational system, and its value and crucial importance to the future of our nation, but we do not want to pay the price.

This is largely due to the way our social and tax systems are structured; i.e., those of us fortunate enough to fall into the higher income brackets are obligated to subsidize education and other services for those "under" the curve. Therefore, everyone lives in a "least common denominator" environment.

So, our schools are trailers rented from GE Capital, with textbooks and materials that are tattered and obsolete and not plentiful enough to equip every student. We give young teachers "emergency credentials" to guide classrooms right out of undergraduate programs, with minimal practical training, because too few highly qualified professionals will work in such depressing and dangerous conditions for near-poverty level salaries.

We also require our teachers in some areas to be bi or multi-lingual in order to cater to the local populations that refuse to teach or speak English at home.

I do not admit to knowing the answers, and I certainly am not volunteering to pay more taxes, but clearly something needs to change.

Until it does, I figure that my kid(s) are destined for private school.