In the late sixties, the union started gaining strength and resisting the drive for excellence, they annexed a neighboring school district with an older declining urban population, and the school district has never been the same.
Of course the monthly property taxes were higher than the mortgage on my parents' home, but it was the same for everyone.
Even the very highest achieving government schools have the following very negative qualities that simply can NOT be fixed because the are intrinsic to having government run and owned schools ( socialist schools):
1) All government schools are godless in their worldview. **All** of them! The good, the bad, and the ugly! All government schools teach children ( simply by being godless) to think godlessly, how to live life without god, and to compartmentalize their faith. While parents can ( with effort) counter some of this, **all** government schools teach a godless worldview while the child is in school. Godless schools are not religiously neutral, therefore, no government school is religiously neutral.
2) For all children who are in government schools because there is no alternative, the government strictly suppresses the First Amendment Rights of the child while the child is under threat of the law to be there. These rights are speech, press, assembly, and free expression and practice of religion. It applies also to the parents when they are in government school voluntarily for school required reasons or for reasons of law.
The universal principle of #2 applies to **all** children who are in government school because of the law. Good government schools. Bad government schools,...or...ugly government schools.
3) All government schools teach the children to be comfortable with socialism. The moment a child steps foot into a government schools he learns that the government can take money from his neighbor to pay for a service his parents want for free. In fact, his teachers indoctrinate him into believing it is a **right**! Well, if the voting mob can provide free schooling, why not a thousand other things they might provide for free.
4) All government schools ( the good, bad, and the ugly) destroy the market for private schools. If we had government grocery stores we would see the same thing we see with private schooling. There would be stores providing private food ( at a modest price) for those with religious needs. ( Comparable to parochial schools) Or...We would have high end stores providing gourmet food ( comparable to highly priced prep schools).
By the way, although we still have the freedom not to use the government schools we must pay pay extra ( in addition to school taxes) just to ransom our children from the government indoctrination camps. I call this ransom. Some call it jizya.
5) It is impossible to know how much a “good” school is actually teaching. It could be it is the parents who are doing 99% of the afterschooling. Maybe the only thing a government school does is send home a curriculum for conscientious parents and
So...These are only a few of the intrinsic problems that apply to all government schools, even those with a good scholastic record.