get better teachers is all i can think off,finalnd gets like thew best in the world at these tests but i think its cos the kids are so quiet and hardworking anyway

How can a kid afford public education? Public education costs as much or more than private education. The difference, is that (currently) the private education has no federal & state funding.

In Ohio, the average tuition for a private school is ~$5,000 per year. For a public school, it's $10,000. The difference is that taxes are levied to pay the public bill. As Mafoo said, if you had a voucher program that allowed any student to get a free education wherever they wanted to go, they could 'afford' private school. In fact, it'd save a whole lot of money (to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year). 

Secondly, I am not understanding the geographic question. If private schools got federal funding via vouchers, we would see more and more spring up all over the country, thus limiting geographic impact. If anything, it would actually help build more schools, and closer schools to where you live. We currently have this wonderful districting thing that forces schools to monopolize swaths of land. If private schools compete, you'd most likely get closer schools.

And no, there are less potential problems with private schools than fixing the current mess of public schools. I am sure Mafoo or myself would love to answer any other questions you have.

I think a voucher system for free private education is a good idea.

I strongly believe that every child has a right to free education because otherwise you are shooting yourselves in the foot. Genius strikes in random places, it can be born into anyone regardless of class so therefore if you want your population to reach their full potential it is necessary to offer all children a good education.

The public education system in the USA needs an overhaul from what I can tell across the pond. I think maybe the answer isn't in more time at school or increased spending, but increasing efficiency instead. A voucher system seems like a good way to achieve this as well as a few other ways.

You can keep kids in school 12 hours a day 7 days a week, but it will not increase their learning potential to a significant degree for such a high cost. An overhaul of the system is needed, look at ways of giving every person the best education possible through efficient means. It could also have the added benefit of lower costs to the tax payer too.

*I'm gonna say it lol*

I strongly disagree with Obama on this issue...

Time in school is always too long no matter which grade you're in. Kids have to do lots of useless stuff in school and also they get brainwashed to think like the herd, they can get bullied, and it gives them not much time to play video games, go to the beach or meet chick.

But school is a nice thing for parents to put their kids in while they're at work lol.

Thank you. A European leftie agrees with us right-wingers on this one.

You are indeed correct that the US education system needs an entire overhaul.

The problem is that the problems are so deeply rooted, so entrenched, that it's doubtful the government-run system can be salvaged into something viable as opposed to other, better, education systems abroad. No one wants to rob kids of a free education. The issue is how good of an education is it? As it stands, it's not that great. The sad part is that more money is not helping better education. Here's a pretty damning chart of US education:

Notice that there's no correlation between spending and results? If anything, should you plug these numbers into a spreadsheet and looked for trend lines, you'd probably find the inverse is true. Of top-10 funded schools, only 30% had above a 50% graduation rate, while 7/10 had above a 50% graduation rate in the bottom 10 of metro areas and school spending.

People are turning this into a silly private versus public debate. As someone pointed out earlier, the problem isn't funding but the problem is a societal perception on education in America. If you simply made it private, that doesn't change perception of the schooling system in America. Whether it makes it cheaper, more expensive, less or more accessible, etc it doesn't change the heart of the problem. The heart of the problem is no one cares.

We are in a society that rewards things such as entertainment, sports, religion, business manipulation, even crime to a certain extent. None of which in the society that rewards those who put in an honest day's work, have a decent education, or strive for intellectual excellence.

I do agree either the system needs to be completely public where there is complete government control or it needs to be completely private but that's going to depend on how you view things. I think it should be completely private because if it's public that is going under the assumption that everyone deserves schooling. And that people can think in a private system that everyone will have schooling is simply outrageous. This is capitalism people haha.

The point is we waste money ever year sending people through school who essentially don't give a shit. If they don't care why should I care. Same with private system. Even if they are paying for it, they are still wasting time of other potential students who actually want to be there. Whether its wasting money, time, or resources it's a flawed system because it goes under the premise that every one is ENTITLED to education. I don't see that as the case.

And when everyone else starts to notice that you'll see how the perception could easily be flipped. If you have a system BASED ON MERIT, then you will have a system that works. It doesn't matter if you are smart or not, it is based on merit. Meaning if you put the effort into being a school and actually try then you will be allowed to have schooling. If you don't well then you just don't get it. You can't simply buy your way into school because that is a waste of resources. Only those who want to be there and will show results thereof should have an education. The rest... well it's their own fault or their parent's fault.

As you can see you could easily flip perception on education here. Because now there would be a strive to be a the top... to care. Because if ya don't well ya just don't get it. Will have to depend on home-schooling, which I personally don't look to highly upon. And actually the system I proposed can be both public or private. Really I'd rather it be private because there is less chance for silly bureaucracy but it could work in theory either way. The point is you have to change the view of education first before you can fix the intellectual aspects of America. Simply privatizing it, further government control, or even extending the days won't fix the issue. You have to fix the heart of the problem and that is the American view on education. It needs to be seen as something to better yourself and get ahead in life... not something you do 5 days out of the week that you dread. Education right now is seen as expensive daycare... which it essentially is. That has to change first.

Everyone does deserve a decent education, but it doesn't mean it'll be handed to them. They have to prove they deserve education and then worry about money. Although I doubt there will be any truly justified society that would turn down a child that has the will to learn simply based on money. That is where the government could come in to help. Actually Japan has that system based on merit where depending on how well they do on test they can get money to have higher education. That's not such a bad idea. Point is, government's role should be to ensure that those who want to learn have the ability to do it and the private role is to ensure that the education is good.

Well with Cleveland...

Truth is, the schools are still overcrowded and don't have enough materials to teach children.

Almost all that money goes to pay the teachers.

Kasz - Then that's the fault of the teachers union's negotiators.

Just saying that has something to do with it.

Last year Cleveland funding was short around $900,000

and they said the number was so huge that if it effected only teachers they'd have to lay off 10 teachers.

They used to have a website that showed Cleveland schools teacher's stats and how much they made... but that went down because everyone was shocked at how much the teachers made,  it's actually supposed to be up by law, but the State of Ohio doesn't tend to follow it's own laws with education involved.

Hell it's been 20+ years since the way they fund the schools have been deeemed unconstituional anyway.