I'm not disregarding that, because it is true. But it's not like poor kids couldn't get into these schools at all.

Nor did I ever say that that was the case. I just concluded that a kid with wealthy parents have greater chances of entering private schools of high quality, which I find unfair. A child with rich parents evidently has more options.

Which is why private schools tend to make sure they have different people of all different kinds of statuses and races.  They tend to have diversity scholarships.

Really though it just depends where you live if you live in a good neighberhood?  Public schools are just as good as private schools.

If you live in a poorer neighborhood, you are screwed if you don't get your kid into a private school or at least a public/private middleground like a charter schools.

The best teachers usually want to work in the best situations which is why the best teachers end up in richer neighborhood public schools and private schools. (Even though private schools pay less).  Being the best teachers they get to choose.

Lots of teachers want nothing to do with the tougher poorer students who on average haven't been as "prepped" for school, don't have home support and are likely to have more trouble makers.

Which creates a vicious cycle which causes an education gap that grows. (Along with other non school related factors.)

There is an interesing book Freakonomics that uses statistics to analyze various social and economic trends. I highly recommend it.

My kids go to private school, even though I believe it is the kid, not the school that makes the biggest difference. But since I have little faith in formal education and will be perfectly supportive when my kids get to college age but choose not to go, I picked their schools that give them half a fighting chance to be top students if they tried, but not so cut throat where they'd give up fun activities just to keep up. Private schools give you the option to choose, public schools force the parents to take up residency in the school zone..and that may or may not be where you are comfortable calling home.

My own observation has been the schools reflect the neighborhoods. Good neighborhoods produce better performing students, not the other way around. But to each student, being in a good or great school doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing. Better universities recruit only the top 10% of a graduating class, world class universities recruit THE TOP. So a student scoring in the top 10% on aptitude tests for his age might end up in just community colleges if he so happens to be in a school where the top 66% all score better than the top 10% in that state. There is always the exceptionally gifted or hard working student from any neighborhood, but those kids are not the norm and are few in numbers.

Private education also costs quite a bit more. A kid will cost anywhere from 6k (most likly religeous) to 25k a year, from k-12, that's a lot more money than the typical college grad can earn. And college these days cost even more. But the jobs sure as hell haven't kept up with the tuition increases.

Once upon a time, schools gave the under privillaged a chance to change his life. But schools are so important, it gave those in control of education power. With power it comes abuse. Teachers unionized, professors tenured themselves, and the cost of education grew faster than the salaries that awaited the students. Today, education has become a more prevalent way to wreck one's life than it'd help. The same job that a high school grad used to be able to handle now requires a college diploma, and the same college grads now need to have advanced degrees. But the jobs never grew in numbers or complexity. Teachers and professors can look forward to pensions when they retire but their students? No such luck.

And again this is where gamers have the upper hand right? Every game presents you with the controls, the rules and the obsticles, and you jsut figure out how to beat it. Education is broken. If you are still young, you need to figure out something is missing, and if you do everything that you are told, you are just playing on rails. In a capitalist society, the rail is en route to the labor pool.

Democrats want to hand the man the fish.  Republicans insist teaching the man how to fish.  But NOBODY gives up their own fishing holes and the problem today is rich and poor alike line their kids up just the same, for the same jobs that could change the life of some, but merely fulfill the egos of the well fed.  A child with rich parents not only have more options but whatever options they chose, they have more ammo to buy the win button.  There is school, after school program, then private tudor at night.  You still got them beat?  Here's a game changer, extra curricular activities.  How the hell is a kid with good grades, high IQ but gotta help with chores, feed the livestock or stash some hay gonna have the time to LEAD? 

In my kids old public school, there were literally rental residents, families of two to four sharing one address so their kids could attend the school.  These are working parents who couldn't afford the homes but just wanted their kids to have a better chance.  The sad reality is, they merely pad the stats for the schools.  High GPA? Yes. High SAT? Yes.  Acceptance to great schools? Nope.  And I had to move cuz my boys were gonna grow up not with the awesome memories of playing Ultima II (whatever today's equivalent is) but how many damn tudors they worked with.

Luck is a pertinent part of success.  I remember playing an MMO where they randomly assigned starting stats.  Players started deleting characters to get that uber AGI or INT.  In real life, kids born into wealthier families do have more choices.  That is not unfair because the other way around would be unfair too if as a parent I'm not allowed to share my wealth with my kids.

But here in America at least, the land of the free.  As long as you see the uneven playing fields for what they are, there are paths you can take outside of what the institutions would give you.  Sports, Music, Art for the gifted, Entrepreneurship for people like me who's too weak to fight, too slow to run, to blind to pick the right color and too clumsy to draw even two lines.  But you can still find a way to min max yourself and make a great living.  In the great MMO of life, there is always a way.

Private School is best. If I ran the country I would privatize schooling and go to a voucher system. Also the teachers union needs a serious step back in terms of power. Bad teachers need to be able to be fired, and good teachers need to be able to be rewarded.

Also I would love to see the curriculum changed. Advanced math, for example, needs to be optional...I've never once used the pythegorean (I can't even fuckin spell it) theorem once outside of a school setting....and the kids need to learn more life skills like how to do their taxes, how to change a flat tire/jumpstart a car, etc. stuff that you would actually use.

And the good thing about private schools is each one can specialize in a different area of study. Like say there are two schools in the area a kid could go to...one specializes in math and science, and one is best at english and social studies...well now the parent can choose which school to go to to help send their kid on a certain path and gain a specialty...unlike a public school which is average at best in all areas and has no specialty.

That is something I would 100% support. Many bad teachers scoot by and get normal salary when they don't deserve it.

Yeah it's crazy eh. Once you've been a teacher for 2 years it's next to impossible to be fired. 

Also I want things like banking sick days to end. Teachers can now add up all their sick days each year and use all right before retirement. At least in Canada they can, I don't know about in the United States. 

I'm pretty sure they can do that. One of my teachers said that he could take off more than a month from school and still get payed.

Been to both. Public school all the way.