My father in law was a teacher turned small town school principal and finally a financial superintendent for a well to do school district. Were he still alive, he would hardly recognize the current educational system... though I believe the writing was on the wall back in the 1970s when he retired. He and others I knew spent their early years in the educational system closing down the old one room school houses to be replaced by the large centralized school systems.

The theory of more bang for the buck in spending turned into schools that became more concerned with grabbing more allocations of money and pushing kids through the system than actually doing their mission of teaching kids.

I was fairly young when I realized that I didn't really need school to learn... I just needed it for that piece of paper that could get me in the door. For many in the worst of the low income school districts... the only door they see is the one leading to violence and crime.

Poor education is a social issue that needs to be addressed on all levels... not with platitudes.