I can talk about the education system from the other side. You want rants? I'll give you rants! ;-) Do you know how much garbage is expected to be part of the school system nowadays? Teachers are expect to teach manners, civility, good citizenship, sex education, drivers' ed., and "real world" stuff along with "The 3 R's." (And oftentimes without parental support.) Everytime I turn around I hear how the school cirucilum is watered down, then I hear everyone complain that the schools aren't picking up the slack from what parents aren't teaching their kids any more. Oh, and we have to teach them morality, but if we try, then we're preaching religion (secular religion at that!), and if we don't, then we're abandoning our jobs as moral guides. Then you have the beaurocrats who "know" the best way to do things and force it down people's throats. I'm not just talking about people on the Board of Education, or the Education Department, but also politicians looking to impress the voters. Then you have the parents, some of whom have no clue what goes on in a classroom, meddling, up through lawsuits to get what they want for their kids. (Yes, some parents have good ideas and should be listened to, but there's a lot of them who should shut up, or at least learn about what they're talking about before opening their mouths.) And don't forget the ivory tower theorists who never spent a day of their lives in a classroom. I had an instructor for "Teaching in the High Schools" who'd never taught above grade 8! (High school = 9-12 or 10-12.) She was recommending reading books for the high school students that was appropriate for grades 4 - 6. Schools spend so much time on CYA it's pathetic. We had someone force the school to let their kid retake and pass a test so she could graduate. The teacher had informed the parents several times that the kid was failing throughout the year. The kid plagerized a major paper and was caught but was still given partial credit and then failed the final exam. The teacher gave a make-up test which the kid blew off, so she failed the student. The parents trotted out a lawyer who threatened to investigate every last moment of the teacher's life to find something to blackmail/blacklist her with. She stood her ground, but the school board caved in! I've also read about students in poor school districts who are told by their parents to be disruptive so the parents can collect Social Security money for their emotionally disturbed kids! I taught college for a while - computer classes - and I was floored by all the nonsense I had to go through. I went through useless education courses and suffered through dictatorial, fiefdom mentality from the administrators just to have students that only took the classes to switch jobs and make more money. They didn't give a damn about the actual coursework or learning; they just wanted to get high grades and makes tons of money. No, I wasn't teaching 18 years olds, I was teaching mostly 30, 40, and 50 year olds. And if these people who were paying out of their own pockets to take these classes didn't care (and these computer classes were required only for a CS degree!) then I can only imagine what an elementary or high school teacher goes through! As for home school, you get the same quality issues as a regular school. Some parents are wonderful teachers, while others shouldn't have been allowed to breed to begin with, let alone "guide" a young mind. (Some abusers keep their kids in home schooling to maintain as much control as possible.) What they need to do is to look at the countries that are kicking our butts in academic achievement and copy their methods. Part of it is cultural, but some of it is curriculum and teaching methods. I don't know where the money goes, but it doesn't go to the teachers and doesn't go to keeping the buildings in shape, that's for sure! Grrr! (Wind the Crescent up and see where she goes.)