[wagglebee]

Perhaps if schools focused on teaching rather than leftist indoctrination this would be different. Better yet, get the federal government out of the education business altogether.

[DoughtyOne]

I agree on both points. DO IT TODAY!

[Almondjoy]

Wow.. a free market system.. I'm suprised this even made it on the air on ABC.

[Third Order]

Don't ignore the culture at home. If the parents value education, the kids are more likely to do well.

[Gordongekko909]

Ahem.

[grania]

Add to your list DISCIPLINE. Kids are natural learners, if the environment is conducive to it. And, discipline would actually save money.

I've reached the point where sometimes I wonder if the government-controlled education doesn't strive to identify a small percentage of excellent students, and let the rest learn just enough to be good, un-questioning, dependent worker-bees.

[bmwcyle]

It is not just the kids. I teach adults on computer systems. We get side tracked on other topics. They adults do not understand current events or history to save their lives.

[staytrue]

you can’t fire him

I had a teacher in high school who was insane from day one. They never did fire her. 1 year after I graduated, she checked into the nut house.

[Beowulf]

American kids are not growing stupid. Their public educational system is failing.

[freedumb2003]

"I think it has to be something with the school, 'cause I don't think we're stupider ..."

Deliberate irony?

[MarkL]

The Kansas City, MO school district lost its accreditation in 1999, and to the best of my knowledge, the district still hasn't met the standards to be completely acreddited by the state.

This means that no college in the country has to accept a highschool graduate from the KCMO school district. The "best part" of this is the fact that more money has been spent in the KCMO school district, due to a desegregation lawsuit 25 or so years ago, than any other school district in the country (to the best of my knowledge). The federal courts have ordered BILLIONS of dollars be spent, and there's been practicly no measurable imprivement in the last 25 years.

Mark

[sono]

The real story behind Jaime Escalante dovetails this piece by Stossel, one of the MSM's little appreciated treasures. Stand And Deliver Revisited is a must read for anyone concerned about our kids.

[abclily]

Students in the United States are not stupid. They are uneducated. They are ignorant of who they are and of where they are.

[who knows what evil?]

They are the product of a public school education.

[Paul_Denton]

Thats easy: Because the left runs the schools.

[mc6809e]

Stossel asks South Carolina school official Dolores Wright, "How much money would be right?" Wright answers, "Oooh. Millions. And it would really make it right. ... The more, the better."

When the education system asks for even more money, they're admitting one of two things:

Either they willingly aren't doing a good enough job because they don't think they're paid enough (jerks), or they admit they're incompetent and need to pay more to get better (stupid).

I wonder which it is.

[Pharmboy]

This provides a crystal clear example of why powerful unions can do an incredible amount of harm. Their intransigence for real change, their constant whining about more money, their bloated bureaucracies, their socialist agenda, their lies, their focus on themselves and not the kids, etc. etc. need to end or we will never move ahead in education.

[Mark was here]

The true customers for todays public schools are the ones paying the freight. This is the taxpayers, some who have kids in school and some who don't.

The students are receiving a service, but they are not the customers.

Due to privacy laws the customers are not allowed to see what they are purchasing.

Any system where the customer is not shown what is being paid for is bound to be corrupt.

If the taxpayers are paying for little Johnny to take an 9th grade "read-a-movie" English class they have a right to know if Johnny got an "A" or not. They have a right to know if everyone in the class got an "A" or not. Johnny will also know that the taxpayers will also be watching to see the bang they got for their buck.

With the Internet it is now possible to let the taxpayers know what they are paying for.

[68skylark]

Stossel asks South Carolina school official Dolores Wright, "How much money would be right?" Wright answers, "Oooh. Millions. And it would really make it right. ... The more, the better."

That quote is great! Congratulations to John Stossel for asking the simple questions that get great answers. I wish there were more like him.

[Aquinasfan]

Are kids in the United States being cheated out of a quality education?

Who cares? It's about free babysitting.

[Philistone]

Misplaced premise. Last UNESCO data I saw showed that overall, US students ranked 15th in the world in Math and Science.

France (for all its posturing about its "great educational system") ranked 14th.

The UK ranked 22nd, and the vaunted Germans 23rd.

Finland (for what it's worth) ranked first.

Considering that unlike France (one curriculum - heavily geared toward "teaching to the test", one language - everything is taught in French) the US has to educate children from every corner and language of the globe, we're not doing too badly.