MAV,

On education, it's my belief that this term also has (at least) two definitions.

Maybe on #1, Maybe on #2. 1. Sounds good on the surface. Florida has instituted a program of testing/grading in schools similar to the one GWB proposes in his package. School funding and (eventually) teacher's salaries are dependent on student's grades on standardized tests. Any guess as to what the students learn to do? And the "proof" that the test's actually demonstrate anything are inconclusive at best.

2. The system is unwieldily and expense. Too many bureaucrats and monitoring programs (mandated by the Federal Government for the most part). And what about school sports programs? A while back, a nearby School district opened a new school. No money for books for the library or computers, but the sports program was fully funded. Another district tried to buy new textbooks to replace outdated ones.. Because of limited funds, the proposed solution was to cut the sports budget by 10%. At the next meeting, over 200 people showed up to protest the decision (usually less than 10 showed up). Result was no new text books and a fully funded sports program. If the goal is to educate and parents need to be involved, the education needs to start with the parents.

Plenty of other examples. Driver's Ed, for example. Or using limited funds to buy computers that are outdated inside of two years. Programs that are created because the school system can get a federal grant to teach anger-control on the schools and history textbooks that stop with the election of Nixon.

With mandated programs for learning deficiencies (my son benefitted from same), legislatively imposed requirements that are cumbersome, time consuming and require certain levels and types of staffing. Any wonder where the money goes. Florida is a right to work state. We have a union but membership isn't required. The teachers have a interest in teaching the students (at least to pass tests) the "We have 10 teachers making over $50,000 per year" In general, we don't. As a college town, salaries are a little lower because of the University. Starting salary with a Masters is 27K. "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"

Our problem is that because of the University and a publically owned utility, over half the potential taxable property is tax-exempt.

"If you can accept that home schoolers can cover K-12 education costs for about $250 and that we spend around $4500 per year per student for "education", we're talking babysitting" I have friends who home school (three families). Their costs are about $1000 a year. If you count the value of their time, costs rise. Not as high, but they don't have to do special programs for learning problems and the like. Home schooling can work well. It tends to neglect social development. "American public school students score among the worst in the world. Why is that even remotely acceptable? "

It isn't. And I'm not claiming that we have good students but why do we care what somebody scores on the SAT and see that as a valid measure of anything. SAT's seem ideally designed to protect non-teacher education types from having to make a value judgement about a child. Its clean, simple, objective, you can't get sued over it and who cares if 20% of the college freshman entering one state university couldn't identify the century of the American Civil War. All of them had to score above 1200 to get in. (Source was one of the RR talk shows so validity is questionable) "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."

Getting parents to show up for parent/teacher conferences is a big problem. The solution is to get parents involved, but when the turnout of parents at a basketball game is three times that of the PTA, I question if you're not hoping for the impossible. Most private schools (non-boarding anyway, require that parents spend a certain number of hours working at the school as a condition of their child's enrollment. "I do believe students should be funded by the state since to do otherwise based on property taxes has created "rich and poor" school districts." In Duval County, the rich districts demanded that the School Board spend more money on their schools since they paid more taxes. As they couldn't change the per capita, the richer schools got things like a $3 million computer lab. The poor schools couldn't even get money for a copier. Stopping that kind of thing is difficult. Fixed funding formulas fail to address the problem.

"Given that you can't fire incompetent teachers (labor union) guess where they are sent, the poor districts. Any doubt why the poor stay poor? They're getting screwed by the "education" monopoly." Damn, we agree. Scarey.

"If the education industry were allowed to proliferate, specialists (just like the medical community) of all types could excel in any imaginable area (gifted, slow learners, faith based, military, behavioral problems etc.) All kids could be directed to the successful school of the parents' choice and the bad teachers could then work at McDonlads. "

Specialist cost money. And how do you know if they're any good.? I mean, a doctor generally has observable proof of success or failure. How do you evaluate teachers? A few pilot programs seem to show that, even under the current bureaucracy, what works is getting the trouble making kids into separate classes and requiring parental involvement. In middle school, peer mediation. "Whatever the answer, "education" reform needs to happen loosening the grip of organized labor/crime on the taxpayer"

You omitted politicians, special interest groups, Colleges of Education, text book publishers (check this out: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/01/15/textbook.errors.ap/index.html) And parents who think football is a valid course of study. (Or just don't want to deal with their kids complaining). "Having seen your FLSC (a total democrat partisan entity) in action, I can see why they ruled the way they did on the Constitutionality of vouchers." It was a circuit judge in Leon County (state capital). Jeb is appealing. The problem was that funds could be used in religiously run schools, to promote religion. The US Supreme Court seems to disagree, if the funds are used only for non-religious purposes. An accounting nightmare if ever there was one. Partisans, yes. But they're our partisans. And they keep getting reelcted. Regards, John