re: how can we improve our educational system?

Go to private school,

The main problem with the educational system in the US is the kids in the schools don't want to learn and the parents don't give a shite.

If a kid doesn't want to learn, they don't have to. No Child Left Behind punishes schools for holding kids back a grade, sot he teachers are forced to float the grades to pass the kids. My wife taught an inner city Houston 7th grade class last year; got paid 48K to do it but the money wasn't nearly enough to have to deal with the little shitheads every day. Half the kids couldn't read past a 3rd grade level, and they all got C's to pass them along to the next grade.

The parents didn't give a shite that the kids were at 7th grade and couldn't speak english yet (some had been in school in the US since kindergarten), and she was the only non-spanish speaking teacher at the school. Its nearly impossible to find teaching jobs in Houston that do NOT require Spanish fluency, because most classes are taught in Spanish.

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No they wont. They'll sit at home and collect a check. Just like their momma.

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Then something else would need to be fixed. But if you want high performing schools you have to get rid of the kids that won't do anything regardless.

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Then something else would need to be fixed. But if you want high performing schools you have to get rid of the kids that won't do anything regardless.

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Yup, I agree. However, that is impossible.

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But we have to ask ourselves, do we want to have public schools or public daycare?

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We already have public daycare so leave public schools to the states. To the other poster that said get rid of all the kids that don't want to be there.....spot on.

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However, that is impossible.

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The hardest part would be the social stigma of "allowing kids to not attend school". Once you get past that, then just stop making it compulsory.

We've basically made a very valuable service a trivial public good. And the quality of it has adjusted to the perception. Once we make it a privilege again it will be more highly sought out.

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For as much as the kids learn, it is a public daycare in all but name. The only good it does is keep the future inmates from getting into mischief during the day.

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I don't think we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There are aome very good public schools that would rival the best private schools by any objective measure.

Also, I dont want to call out just inner city kids. There are plenty of lazy asses in nice suburban public schools (my wife used to teach a lot of them) that would probably be better off working and possibly learning a trade OTJ.

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I don't think we need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There are aome very good public schools that would rival the best private schools by any objective measure.

Also, I dont want to call out just inner city kids. There are pretty of lazy asses in nice suburban public schools (my wife used to teach a lot of them) that would probably be better off working and possibly learning a trade OTJ.

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We aren't talking about college alternatives though. Kids are going to learn a trade if they can't even read or do simple math. At the very least the lazy suburban kids have parents who expect them (mostly) to go to college or at least graduate highschool.

My wife had 90 kids across 3 classes in Spring Branch ISD, 3 white, 1 black, the rest hispanic. 2 parents showed up to meet her at the beginning of the school year and discuss their kid/the class.

She had to conduct educational triage; there were around 7 kids that passed the state tests the previous year, and another 10 that has a chance of passing her year. The other 73 she had to write off, which broke her heart because there was nothing she could do for them in the time alloted. She even did free tutoring after school 3 days a week. A dozen kids would show up at the most, none of whom were the hopeless cases.

They didn't have funding woes either. In contrast to the private school she taught at the previous year, this school had iPads in the classroom, 2 SMARTboards, and plenty of resources. The kids didn't give a damn.

The kids don't care, and the parents don't care. Why is the blame on the schools?

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How about bringing back segregated schools?

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We have de facto segregation now because of racially homogenous neighborhoods. If you were to re-draw the district lines to racially diversify the schools, it wouldn't take 10 years before the whites (hispanic and non hispanic) would relocate across district lines.

Privatize it. Eliminate teacher unions and forced tenure. Grade teachers like any other business. The better teachers get better pay and others will strive to be better.

Bring back discipline in schools and parents need to be involved.