The government does a horrible job of educating kids anyways. Private and home-schooled children do better on standardized testing then any child educated in a government school.

Public school is less about education than about experience and preparation these days. When's the last time you used Calculus? What about Biology or American History?

Probably not very often.

The reason that I believe private schools and home-schooling sucks is because it doesn't accurately prepare children for being forced to work with a team of diverse people. In a private school most children come from the same background or similar background, in home-schooled situations a child would never have the opprotunity to work with a student outside the home.

The reason that Bush cut the TRIO plans is because of a systematic attempt at the Republican party to end institutions that were created for the purpose of ending poverty. Why? I have no idea.

Also, it would be interesting for you to know that I believe standardized testing sucks too. Standardized tests in no way measure your actual knowledge of an area or ability to work in situations using the areas you score high in.

Anyway.. That was probably totally incoherant.

I went to private school all through school except kindergarten, and I have known a lot of homeschooled students. In a private school, we were bahind socially and academically. We did not get the same opportunites that public schooled students revieved: scholorships, programs like Upward Bound, clubs, organizations, AP or DC classes, and higher level classes. Most of the students coming out of my private school are behind in math and science and are having to take remedial math courses in college to catch up to a general mathematics and algebra level. Homeschoolers that I have known have proven to be much more immature socially, mentally, emotionally, and academically as well. They have serious problems with making friends because they've not had to deal with peers in a classroom setting before. They have either not made friends at all and stick to themselves or make friends that are much younger than they are and are treated like children because they act like children. In my private school, the entire middle/high school portion was made up of middle class white students. The only non-white students belonged to the elementary school and usually left in sixth grade or before. Private school students are not used to hearing sexual terms or swear words and are shocked when they are suddenly plunked down into reality. When I graduated and went to a public college, I had an incredibly hard time making friends and I was pretty much alone for my freshmen year. I was able to begin thinking for myself ebcause of my boyfriend who was public schooled. He taught me how to think for myself and stop regurgitating all oft he beliefs that had been shoved down my throat for so many years. He also helped me gain the confidence that it took to be able to get through the shyness and talk to new people.

And as for the reason that Bush is cutting TRiO, there is really no valid excuse other than the governments extreme spending habits. There are hundreds of ways to cut down on government spending other than cutting educational help programs for the poor. The only way the poor have to move up is education and by cutting their educational programs, it makes it extremely difficult, and maybe even impossible for them to get a better education.

Please don't generalize all private schools as having students who all have academic and social problems. There is no real standard for private education because each institution is a private organization and entity which chooses what they want to teach. And it seems in the US that most private schools are religious schools which, because of their choice of curricula, cannot work using public money or under the "public" name. I'm sure there are some private schools which have a more worldly and thorough academic curricula to offer rather than a mostly religious one.

Please don't generalize all private schools as having students who all have academic and social problems. There is no real standard for private education because each institution is a private organization and entity which chooses what they want to teach. And it seems in the US that most private schools are religious schools which, because of their choice of curricula, cannot work using public money or under the "public" name. I'm sure there are some private schools which have a more worldly and thorough academic curricula to offer rather than a mostly religious one.

I wasn't generalizing. I usually referrred to it as "my private school" or something like that...Most of the private schools that I know of are like that, though. Not just mine. The religious curricula or affiliation isn't the reason that they don't get government funding; private schools are just that: schools that don't get governent funding for one reason or another-not just religious.

Oh yeah, and because they are private schools, they can't get the organizations and things like AP and DC classes because they are government things.

"The only way the poor have to move up is education and by cutting their educational programs, it makes it extremely difficult, and maybe even impossible for them to get a better education."

It's not the governments goal to decrease the amount of cheap labour.

Bear in mind Mr. Non-US-Citizen that Americans are socially retarded anyway...

Education isn't for everyone and should not be forced upon them. The poor have other ways of moving up (blue collar jobs are still big money-makers) other then education.

Its fairly obvious education wasn't forced upon you.

In reguards to college (which I hope is what he was talking about) I agree. Many jobs do not require college or have some other form of education (Certifications, on the job training, etc) and I feel that some schools force down students throats that they have to go to college or else they are failures and spend more time "preparing" them for college instead of just trying to give them a solid education that they don't need to add on to if they choose not to.

I know a couple of people who went to college just because thats what they were told to do and they just ended up wasting time and money because the fields they wanted to go into didn't require it (one ended up being an auto mechanic and one a machine operator -- both decent paying jobs that didn't require college).

The issue isn't school being forced upon someone, the issue is school being avaible to everyone.

Some jobs do not explicitly require college degrees but going to college improves your chance of getting a job and a better job. The purpose of high school is not to give you necessary skills or education for working, that is the job of a college or trade school. If it were the high schools job the education system would be a mess. What if someone wants to be a nurse? Computer repair specailist? Welder? You'd have to have classes for all of that in each high school. That's why we have trade schools.

If you go to a trade school and get say... a journeyman's license in electricity then you CAN get a job, but if you go to college and get a degree in electrical engineering, you WILL get a job and you will have the ability to move up in your career. Also, the college experience can be rewarding from what I hear.

What he was arguing for was a more European system.

In many European systems, at the age of 15 or 16, you take a test or choose if you prefer the academic route (something akin to traditional American high school, prep for University) or various trade schools.

In the US, you're pretty much stuck - you're in the academic route until 18, like it or not. A lot of kids get frustrated with a system that doesn't teach them anything that they're interested in/can use, and drop out.

The European model tries to address vocational needs and teach a trade, attempting to address the problem. Many are advocates of this and want to see it implemented in the US, but I am much more skeptical. In France, for example, if you don't go the academic route, your chances of unemployment, low earning, etc. are so much higher than those who go to University that you'd almost be an idiot to go that route - unemployment levels for those kids are sometimes higher than unemployment levels among straight dropouts in the states.

I don't want to sound like an ass, but how old are you? Your statement sounds exactly like the line we used to be given in high school as an excuse for doing what they did. They are not trying to take college away from anyone and anyone who wants to go to college pretty much can with financial aide. They are trying to cut funding in a program that they feel is unnecessary, and its hard from reading only 1 article to make a good judgment call on it. It comes down to whenever someone tries to cut something out of the education budget no matter how wasteful it is, there are always people who try to spread this fear that they are trying to get rid of public education.

I'm not saying teach specialized education in high school, I'm saying teach a standard for what a normal person should know for every day life. I agree its silly to teach trade in high school, but at the same time we are basically teaching the trade of college to everyone.

I've been in the work place for a couple of years now and I can safely tell you a college degree isn't a magical ticket to a better job. I have a 4 year degree in Computer Science and I have friends who have 2 year degrees various computer and networking fields, and we all are brushed aside for someone who has 4 years of real life experience or internships (luckily I had a internship while in college otherwise I would still be working entry level crap). I don't regret my degree and if I had the chance to do it all over again would still have gotten it, but now I know it doesn't guarantee me a job.

I see.

I'm 18. And you're not an ass. Asses sound much different.

The point that I'm trying to make is that there's really only two choices after high school. Work or college. Because teaching a trade is not a good idea it's a better idea to teach pre-college. Also, it's generally a good idea to get a degree for lots of professions. Some do look at experience more than they look at degrees but it's hard to get entry level work without learning either a trade or getting a degree especially in non-technology related careers.

But the standard for what a normal person should know for their everyday life they probably learned by the 7th grade.