[harleyquinn]

Sorry, can't agree. I don't make anywhere near $200K, but when I have kids, my kids will probably go to private school. Why?
1) Politians keep throwing around how bad our education system is, but everytime the new budgets come around, what's the first to get cut? (this seems to be true no matter what party the polititions are in). The schools where I am are hurting, BAD, and the governor just announced a HUGE cut to education, so how exactly do they expect the schools to be able to educate when they have to cut good teachers, need to make do with outdated books and supplies, etc.

2) I can't stand those standardized tests they make us do (don't know if this is just a NY thing or all over the country). Why? Because I can recall the last 3 years of school, we never got to really learn anything, instead it was just spent regurgitating what the teacher told us so that we'd do good on the tests because school funding is based on those tests, therefore schools force teachers to forgo actually teaching students and getting them excited and curious about learning to prep them to be mindless robots. Interestingly enough, studies are now showing that students that go through this fail in college because they don't know how to do critical thinking, they only know how to memorize facts and regurgitate them.

Until our government gets it that we need to spend more on quality education for our children and less on special interests, my opinion of this will remain the same.
Also, my best friend teaches in the public schools up here, and she said she'll never send her kids to a NY public school until they improve (this is not a slam against the teachers, they are too often stuck between a rock and a hard place because I'm sure they'd much rather be able to spend 2 extra weeks talking about WWII because kids are excited to learn then rush them through it so that they can cram in all that they are now required to teach in one years time).