<p>Escape, I've been reading this thread for awhile and thought I would chime in now. </p>
<p>I live in a socialist country- Germany, as you can see from my user info. Do you think these problems of education are alone in the US. Germany provides "free", well subsidized education for all, from preschool to graduate school. And even though these are well paid for and generally attended and provide a good education and college education. There are still wealthy families who want more. Yes, even in socialist countries there are very very wealthy individuals, CEO's, bankers, royalty, etc. Most of them do not send their children to public schools. They go to the private religious schools or the international schools. They want more for their children.</p>
<p>Second this is a way around the system. I'll give you a quick rundown. You have your Kindergarten, then in primary school you go to Grundschule. Then after that students are tested and divided between 3 other types of schools: Gymnasium, Realschule and Hauptschule. The last two are less educational and more vocational, for the students who weren't "smart" enough or not able to get into Gymnasium. If you don't get into Gymnasium you generally cannot get into German university. So parents with money send their children to private schools, like international schools, where they then can achieve admittance to then university of their choice, a better choice than they had when they were at public school. </p>
<p>So what does this little anecdote prove. Even with socialism and equal educational funding you still get this "inequality". It will always be there when you have free enterprise and some shreds of freedom. Some people work very hard to provide the best for their families and will not settle for anything less than the best.</p>