Just my opinion, when the courts said that student "civil rights" superseded the rights of other students to an educational environment of discipline and and actual education, started the slide the Bush's have brought attention to and tried to reverse. What the courts ignored was that our educational system is an artificial environment. You have 3 choices, home schooling, religious schools, or public schools. THAT's MANDATED BY LAW. There is no "freedom" to choose not to go. The home schooling requirements are much more stringent than what you find in public school, while religious schools are often much tougher. Both these choices involve a disciplined environment not now found in public schools. In public schools, you are FORCED into an artificial society mandated by law. It completely perplexes me how the courts can force our children to associate with 100's to 1000's of others and not require laws to allow them to learn in a safe educational environment. THAT IS the purpose of sending them there, isn't it?? This is a case where the rights of the one should not supersede those of the many.

Studies have shown that single sex education and the requirement of some sort of "uniform" result in better test scores. Of course, congress ignored these findings and mandated any school recieving federal money must be co-ed. They deny our freedom of choice and then make it almost impossible for public schools to provide a safe educational environment. Good teachers aren't paid enough. There is no method to "weed out" bad teachers. Too much of our "education" dollars go to administration. It's a bureaucracy that exists only to justify itself and the national agendas of the 2 teachers unions have virtually nothing to do with our kids education(reading them is a study of socialism vs what can be done to educate our children, but I guess that depends on what they want to educate them in, as some of the headlines from Colorado{Boulder} & California{SF} & New York{Columbia} have shown us).

Look at the reaction to the No Child Left Behind - outrage that someone implied they weren't doing their job! Then the manipulation & cheating on the new rules to try to show they were doing better. Shoving kids into "special ed" courses (more $) and allowed them to subtract poor scoring kids from being counted.

"Feeling Good" is the agenda, not discipline and hard work. "Whole Language" vs phonetics, another marathon discussion. How many of us had an experimental education course? Me, it was the "Illinois math". I asked the teacher what happens to the kids this "new" teaching course does NOT help. I received a perplexed look and was was told they would be pushed up to the next grade even though they may not be prepared for it. We were (and still are) guinea pigs for so-called educators so someone can get a Masters or Phd. How many of us noticed the 1st semester was a rehash of high school? Colleges started this because not everyone was being taught what they needed to know in high school, and drop out rates where too high in the 1st year. That's on arm of our educational system that remained quiet because they knew the truth of it all.

I'm burned out now (and burned up still) and have to get some zzzz's. The one thing I do for my younger relatives is a gift of a laptop (with all the accessories, printer/copy/scan, & 4yr service) to those graduating high school. So I put my money where my mouth is.

__________________
Mark _______________________________
2001 X5 4.4i topaz blue/sand Sport, complete Dinan S2 , hitch, V1, tint, BSW Stage 1, Alpine INA-W910BT
___________
Life is not fair!
You can't protect people from their own stupidity!
Laughter makes life worth living