Faillure.

Here in Louisiana, I looked at the history portion of the curriculm, for high school, and all I saw taught on Vietnam was for the students to act out an anti-war demonstration.

That was it.

Nothing else was taught on it. Then as I thought back to my days in public school here, I cant even remember learning about even that.

Math and English are still probably the better subjects taught but science and stuff like history, I seriously doubt.

I homeschool my kids and I can tell ya from what I have seen, my kids are a year ahead in school. Of course they are not ahead of every kid, but from simply looking at the curriculms, we are farther ahead then the public school system which tells me, we are not giving the majority of kids the kind of education they need.

We need to move back to local controls of schools. Get the feds out of it. There is no invested interest in the local community by parents to see that their kids get the proper education they need in order to succeed. If parents were directly involved in this, we would see schools turn around quickly. Right now, parents buy their kids clothes and send them off to the buses. They pick the kids up and that is that. if mom or dad is even home that is. Parents seem to be to busy doing other things.

Okay, I'm going to play the advocate here. I'm not trying to bait anyone but to present another side that is often missed.

I would call the American public education system a success. It has its problems, sure enough. Quality of education varies, not rigorous enough in some places, not responsive enough to society's needs etc.

However, look at this. Have you really studied the curriculum of today versus what was taught thirty years ago? The curriculum of 30 years ago in many ways pales in comparison to what is required today. Look at how our society has advanced. Most of those people in those jobs who are creating a better way of life for us today graduated from public schools.

Where else in the world do you find a society that is so willing to educate everyone until they are 19? In developed nations that does not exist. France, Germany, Japan, and Singapore have developed tracks for students who "under" achieve.

Where can you find a society that will educate those with disabilities? And expect them to perform? You don't find it anywhere except here. If you are disabled in most industrialized countries, you are sent away, educated at the most menial level and much is not expected. This is changing around the world but only because of the lead of the United States.

Private schools are successful because they only exist for success. If goof off students enroll in private schools, they won't be there long. Exclusive private schools screen their applicants. Public schools don't get to do that.

Based on all of that, and everything that works against the public schools, from violence, crack babies, single parent families, teen pregnancy, poverty, and varying quality of teaching, I would have to say that public schools fare well.