This oughta make the extreme rightwing homeschoolers happy

[FlorenceHamilton]

Education is essential, just as health is essential to a thriving society. Out public education system is very very broken. I attended a high quality urban public high school many years ago. Many, many very successful people got their start at my high school. We were a solid working class community. The parents valued education. They worked hard and sent us to school to work hard. We did.

My children attended a high quality suburban public high school. The same scenario eisted for them. My children graduated in 2003 and 2005. Something very terrible has happened to public education. I suppose I was insulated from it in the suburbs in the late nineties and early 2000's. But now suburban High schools have the same problems.

If we throw away high quality public education, we will become a third world country. Why are so many people buying this BS about making education a luxury instead of a necessitiy? Many of the tea part people are not wealthy. They are shooting themselves. We really are being overtaken by the Christian Taliban.

Here's the reality.

We cannot live in pure Capitalism nor can we live in pure Socialism. We must encourage Capitalist ventures. But we also must ensure that the populace is literate and healthy. We need to accept that the balance is a mix of Social programs and of Capital investment. Socialism is NOT a dirty word. We need to get over it. We need both. Period. There are times we need to shift the balance of these one way or another to suit the times. But both must exist at all times. Read Adam Smith.

[Austin]

Here's the reality.

We cannot live in pure Capitalism nor can we live in pure Socialism. We must encourage Capitalist ventures. But we also must ensure that the populace is literate and healthy. We need to accept that the balance is a mix of Social programs and of Capital investment. Socialism is NOT a dirty word. We need to get over it. We need both. Period. There are times we need to shift the balance of these one way or another to suit the times. But both must exist at all times. Read Adam Smith.

[Guest Anonymous]

My prediction is that if public schools are closed down America will become a country with extremes of poverty and wealth.

That day is looming ever closer - we are finding it difficult to hang onto what we have, let alone save for retirement and emergencies.

[jenny_islander]

Their heads would explode if they heard about my school district. My girls are registered homeschool students through the district and any and all nonreligious books, equipment, etc., are paid for by the district. The homeschool office also maintains a stockroom stuffed with educational materials that they got for free as samples or because the school district changed programs. Pretty much everything non-consumable is mine until the last child in our household ages out of needing it. All they have to do is pass the standardized proctored fill-in-the-bubble tests starting in third grade.

They love it when people homeschool here. Kids doing the work at home are kids not putting wear and tear on the school's physical plant, which isn't going to be replaced during this recession.