> I remain convinced that education is not the role of the government, and I doubt we'll find much common ground there. So let's talk about how to fix the current problem.

I'm about to put in more than two cents, I think...

I think I agree with Sam that public education is a good thing. Everyone should have the opportunity to get an education...and most children aren't going to *want* to go to school, so it is a good idea to make it mandatory.

Public education was a noble thing that our government attempted to undertake. Unfortunately, the gov't has, to a large degree, botched it up. Folks here have been arguing that the degeneration of America's public education system is due to underfunding, overfunding, misallocation of funds, lack of accountability, et cetera, et cetera. And certainly those must be contributing factors. But I'd like to take a different tack if I may.

When public education began in this country, it was accomplished through traditional and time-honored techniques. "The Three R's" as someone coined it-- Reading, Writing, and Arithmatic. (I wonder if the person who called it that was very good at spelling?) Kids learned the alphabet and how to read with phonics, and it worked.

Then came John Dewey and the Progressive Education movement, in the 1930's I believe. I consider the Dewey Decimal System to be an excellent tool; I couldn't find my way around the library without it. But I can't say I agree with his views on education. Now we've got "Whole Language" and "New Math". These supposedly new and improved learning techniques just don't hold a candle to time-honored methods. If Whole Language works, then why are our high schools graduating illiterate seniors?

There are SO many factors that have contributed to the decline of public education in the USA. Financial problems are only a fraction of the cause. I firmly believe that schools are never going to improve, no matter how much money gets pumped into the system, until a change is made in the way it operates. We need to get back to using learning techniques that work. Harumph.

Gri"we plan to home-school"shny