Drop Out Rates in New York and L.A. Schools

[JonPKibble]

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it's time we stopped this demand all students go 12 years; and if they don't both the system and the student are failures...let people quit; then come back as needed; education is a lifelong thing.


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FWIW, I learned more on my own after graduating HS than I ever did in our half-assed public education system.

The bottom line --- education is whatever you make of it. You can even get straight A's and not take anything away from a high school education. Just because you get a passing grade on a piece of paper does not mean you possess true intelligence. Being able to memorize and regurgitate information does not make you a genius.

[Jedster]

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Too many children are being left behind.

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Yes and I'm sick and tired of people making it a political issue about the federal government. Clinton was a governor and new something about education but still cut federal funding; Bush has increased federal funding and passed a big new law but nothing has gotten done.

Whatever one says about Booker T. Washington, everybody should agree that schools aren't as good as they can be, and part of it is because we don't put enough money into them. I think that we should pay teachers much more but expect more of them, including accepting the ability to get fired.

I also think that parents need to be responsible for making school districts great and people shouldn't whine about paying the taxes that are needed.

I don't think it's primarily a federal issue, but I'm still a proud liberal, and it really annoys me when conservatives say "pull yourself up by your bootstrap" as if the only alternative was some big federal program.

Sure Daniel N didn't go to high school, but really the only good thing about having dumb kids in school is that the pots we win on the river will be bigger. But eventually those pots will dry up because the economy will head south if we don't have the best intellectual capital in the world.

[lehighguy]

Facts!
http://www.oecd.org/topicstatsportal/0,2647,en_2825_495609_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

Without getting long winded, I think we should privitize k-12 schools and provide vouchers. Our government run k-12 schools "lag" while our private universities are second to none.

[tolbiny]

Absolutely its not impossible to succeed given poor circumstances, but the percentages of people that actually do are very slim. For every booker T washington there are dowzens who try and still end up working for 2k a year trying to support families. The problems with these schools re problems with masses of people, not exceptional individuals.