With all due respect, EricT, Government schools aren't the nation's problem any more than Obama is. The problem is the majority of patriots who use schools merely as a "safe" place to leave their kids while they go to work, not making sure that the schools are teaching their kids the Constitution as the Founding States had intended for it to be understood, particularly the Founding States' division of federal and state government powers.
Thomas Jefferson had correctly predicted the consequences patriot apathy as follows.
"Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature." - Thomas Jefferson (Letter to Edward Carrington January 16, 1787)
ONLY VERY STUPID PEOPLE would think that such a monster can be reformed or that any good for our continuing freedom could emerge from it. It would be like birthing and alien in the movie “Alien”.
If Thomas Jefferson could see the horror or our nation's socialist-entitlement schools and the ignorance they generate he would die a second death!
When Thomas Jefferson advocated educating American citizens he likely had his **OWN** education and that of his fellow signers of the Declaration in mind. Schooling then produced the **MOST** literate society ever known to humankind. It included:
homeschooling
private tutoring
neighborhood dame schools
Sunday schools
Parent built, owned, and controlled one-room schools that met very briefly through the year.
Private boarding academies in the homes of tutors to prepare the brightest for entrance into college as YOUNG TEENS!
Without compulsion and state force our nation had a population of people that made the pamphlets “Common Sense” and “The Federalist Papers” mega best sellers. “Les Miserables” and “Moby Dick” were the rage. Charles Dickens wrote serial novels for common newspapers for the common man. Today, these works are a struggle for even the college educated. Think about the beautifully written letters sent home by ordinary grunt soldiers of the Civil War. Even Tocqueville wrote about the high level of education and literacy of even the poorest farmers.
Gee! May God again curse our nation with such success! /s