Oh, Christ, the standard, canned, teacher-bashing bullshit/lies/fabrication & half-truths that you assholes love so well.

 In my home town here in the woods, we have 435 elementary students.

 We have 10 teachers making over $50,000 per year.

What does the superintendant/principal (administration) make? These teachers are also required to have masters degrees which cost a dollar or two out of their own pockets & years in college. Hey, if its such a great fucking racket, go out & get an education yourself, get certified and get on the Teacher Gravy Train!

 Considering we have only a general store as our "business district" and no other significant sources of
 employment, and that the median income in this state is around $24,000, something is very out of
 balance.

Because teachers make more than gas jockeys and less than plumbers or electricians or snow-plow operators and are the lowest-paid profession of any with comparable education/training/licensing requirements?? I don't think so. Maybe your local elected officials should stop whining and get off their asses to promote some economic development.

 Also consider that a school year does not last 12 months.

Also consider that the school workday for teachers is about 16 hours, that they are ineligible for overtime. Also consider that a lot of them pay for supplies/books/materials out of their own pockets due to inadequate budgets. Also consider that a lot of them have their OWN children to raise.

 In this state, most of that stuff is top secret and I can see why.

Bullshit. Its all public record & you vote on the school budget and elect the school board. If you're just too ignorant to find out this information, that's nobody's fault but yours.

 If you can accept that home schoolers can cover K-12 education costs for about $250

If you can accept that then you're either a moron, or you haven't bothered to check.

 American public school students score among the worst in the world. Why is that even remotely
 acceptable?

Its acceptable, apparently, because assholes like you whine about the cost, and about "lazy overpaid teachers".. The US spends the least on education of any developed country in the world. You get what you pay for.

 There should be a format somewhere between private schools and home schooling which would allow
 parents the choice, responsibility and duty of educating their children in the exact way they see fit.

Parents have those choices and responsibilities now, have always had them, and it is precisely because parents cannot be bothered to be involved in the education of their spawn- and foist it off on the schools as surrogate parents, which role they were never intended to & which they cannot possibly fulfill, that the education in the US is so fucked up- Its the wholesale abdication of parental responsibility both personal and fiscal, not, quote Government Bureaucracy and the Unions, unquote. And its not just -or even primarily- the poor doing this- its the supposed 'educated classes' as well.

 Given that you can't fire incompetent teachers (labor union) guess where they are sent, the poor
 districts.Utter bullshit. Tenure does NOT mean you cannot be fired for incompetence. Even with tenure, the Board always has ways to remove a teacher if they want to- "eliminate the position", "consolidate classes" and trumped-up charges of all sorts.

And teachers aren't "sent" anywhere- they're hired by school boards and boards of education which elected by local morons such as yourself, and for which positions (board members) there are NO QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED WHATSOEVER. In some states you don't even have to be literate. THESE ignorant bastards RUN the schools, not the teaching staff.

 Any doubt why the poor stay poor? .

No more doubt than why ignorant bigots stay ignorant and bigoted. I hope you recognize yourself.

Your vomit is really getting boring-