Joe Barta wrote:

Tim Daneliuk wrote:


Public schools need to be abolished pure and simple.


I'm sure you have ideas on how and why abolishing public schools would
be beneficial, but can you think of reasons why it might be a bad idea
or do more harm than good?

Joe Barta

Nope. Public Schools are a madrassas for secular ideology that pretends
it is "netural". They are propped up by a teacher's union that takes one
of the most critical professions in our society and turns it into factory
work. They are funded at a point of a gun, and people who object to
their values are then forced to pay *again* to have their children
educated within a values context they affirm. Because the schools
are funded by public monies, no one can be excluded, not even the violent,
the disruptive, or the dangerous student. (The Columbine massacre would
likely not happened in a private school because the perpetrators had
a record of misbehavior that would have gotten then kicked out long
before they had the opportunity to kill their peers.) Because the
schools are publicly funded, every 3rd-rate politican and political
bottomfeeder gets a voice in what the content, quality, and mission
of education ought to be. That's how you get both the vile belching
of Political Correctness AND the pressure of the Religious Right all
in the same system. In short, the system is broken, dishonest,
and dysfunctional.

The only question is just *how* to back out of the public school mess
we have today. Clearly there are teachers (many/most) worth keeping
and you cannot just pull the rug out from under the system as it is.
My feeling is that the Federal government should get out of the education
business, giving everyone involved, say, 5 years notice, and decreasing
Federal educational funding (and taxation) 20% per year. This would
give the local governments time to ramp up to accomodate it. This would
put big pressure on the local governments to either outsource or privatize
the schools. Would there be problems? Probably. But I cannot
imagine a situation worse than what we have today: Expensive, Ineffective,
and (in many cases) Dangerous schools.

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Tim Daneliuk
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