| HappySqurriel said: Just on your education note ... While 70% is a very poor indicator in general, it is not that bad when compared to many other US schools. While I don't have the statistics in front of me, there are schools and districts in the United States where the vast majority of the students do not graduate high-school, and of those students that pass many still have significant problems demonstrating that they understand the material that was covered in their education. On a side note, I find a lot of the discussion on the US education system bizzare ... I live in Alberta where we have one of the best education systems in the world (http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101207/CGY_alberta_students_101207/20101207/?hub=CalgaryHome), and I'm still regularly frustrated by how much room for improvement there is; and how many students are still being poorly served by our system. I couldn't imagine having to live in a region in the world where education was being so poorly managed where the best students were worse off than the worst students in our system. |
Yes, I know there are far worse than 70% in America (Detroit is about 35% with spending $15,000 USD per student).
However, this school is 97% white and spends about $8,600 per student. Comparatively, a school 15 miles from it (the district I grew up in) is 99% white, has a graduation rate of 85%, and spends $5,300 per student. I threw race in there so no one could argue the demographics are different.
My wife is pregnant, so we are looking into our education options. We both swore that we would never, ever put our child through the government education system in America. The great thing is, we have private options near us that are a fraction of the cost of what the government pays to educate through the public system.
The education debate in America is abysmal. Everyone assumes more money = fixes problems. Yet the fact of the matter is that there is no correlation between money and results in the nation. No wonder we're the 40th smartest nation now. We're breeding retarded children in school. No wonder these people can't create wealth: They lack the intelligence to save money. Stupidity breeds a lot of problems, and in America, we breed a lot of stupidity. Its sadly endemic to our system. Some politicians have wised up and are pushing vouchers, but we've lost tens of millions of kids and trillions of dollars to crappy schools.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
