<p>“It’s not a strawman argument. I’m saying I wish there weren’t gaps in the quality of education between the states and the curriculum was more standardized, you’re saying you value diversity more. Well, our current system has big gaps in quality of education and our standardized tests are a joke - but hey, at least it’s diverse…”</p>
<p>A strawman is where you put words in the other person’s mouth and then knock down those words. If you claim that I said something, please quote my exact words.</p>
<p>“It’s no surprise American high school students perform poorly compared to our peers abroad. We complain about standardized tests, but we wouldn’t need them if students actually did well.”</p>
<p>There are schools in the US that are world class and there there are schools that aren’t. The goal of NCLB was to bring up the bottom. Instead we’re democratizing mediocrity. What I’d like to see are better parents and better parenting. We have a lot of social evils resulting in poor parenting skills. It is very, very hard to compensate for poor parenting skills unless you take their kids and raise them and educate them in a boarding environment.</p>
<p>“You keep dismissing funding and harping about the virtues of stay at home parents, but the reality is, more parents are working these days.”</p>
<p>Why are more parents working these days?</p>
<p>“The state can’t control what parents do at home,”</p>
<p>Ultimately it can but I hope that we don’t get there. The state does control what parents can and cannot do at home to a greater extant than what we had 30 years ago.</p>
<p>“they can only control what kids learn in the classroom.”</p>
<p>They can’t even do that. You don’t control what someone else learns. You can present and engage but if someone doesn’t want to learn, you can’t make them learn.</p>
<p>“Do you think it’s a coincidence the poorest states have the poorest quality of education? Funding makes a huge difference.”</p>
<p>California spends around 30% of its budget on K12. How is it doing? Take a look at Singapore - a city-state that does a lot educationally with little in education dollars. I have visited schools in Singapore and they run very, very lean. Parents there are part of the solution. Singapore is a country with no natural resources that was a part of a third-world nation many years ago. Going from zero to prosperity without even their own freshwater source has been quite a feat.</p>
<p>“Don’t worry, it seems like the status quo won’t be changing anytime soon. The American public education system will continue to suck. The rich kids will continue to grow up with every advantage while poor students get stuck in crappy underfunded schools.”</p>
<p>Seems that even some of the rich kids are getting fed up with their schools:</p>
<p>[More</a> higher-income families are home schooling their children - USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-28-homeschooling-report_N.htm]More”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-28-homeschooling-report_N.htm)</p>
<p>"While our peers abroad excel in science, Americans still debate whether or not it’s ok for us to talk about evolution in school…but hey, at least the system is diverse. "</p>
<p>A strawman again. That diversity is playing out in the homeschooling community and it seems to be doing well.</p>