Before you jump on Angry Taxpayer too hard, I’d like to know if you have children in a public school? I have e-mailed teachers and administrators and never gotten a response, met with individual teachers and vice principals only to be rudely treated like I was the biggest bother in the world, talked to rude and dismissive staff, etc. TA is right … most of them really don’t care about anything but a check, just like most governmental employees, which they are. They act every bit of it, too.

Tell me, why do you think it is that people with multiple degrees cannot teach in public schools without a teaching license? Why is it that teachers are not routinely given tests like ISTEP or GMATS to check their competence? The system is gamed to avoid competition or insure competency, and it shows.

It is very unfair to charge parents who try to do right by their kids with blame-shifting or laying down on the job under these circumstances. After people are charged out the _ss to pay the property taxes that support these failed systems most find themselves unable to afford a private alternative. I have to agree with Abdul on at least one point. If these systems are so great, EVERY CHILD, no matter who their parents are or how wealthy, MUST attend public schools. Then you might actually see meaningful change when their own kids are being sacrificed on the governmental alter that returns/retains these incompetent SOBs to/in office. It is impossible to be “responsible” for your child’s rearing when government is hell bent and determined to interfere and sabotage everything you try to accomplish.