Quote:Competition is not absolutely necessary for improvements.  Yes, public education has improved over the last fifty years.  Yes, they've gotten away from the conservative indoctrination values that people so love.  But it's made a lot of improvements.  Americans are in fact smarter now than they've ever been.  


Private schools only succeed where they do because they can choose to accept only the best, and they can kick students out for any reason at all.  Public Schools can't be as selective. In fact they have to take students who were kicked out of private schools as well.  Private Schools furthermore have the socioeconomic advantage over public schools.  When you account for socioeconomic factors, Public Schools actually perform better.  There's a good reason for this.  Public School Teachers are required to perform professional development. 


If Private Schools were forced to accept students like public schools do, you'd find them doing far poorer.


It was also found that those who attended private schools had the advantage of early education.  At the Kindergarten level, the private school students perform better, but by the time public school students reach 5th grade, they've passed them.  


Also math scores have been going up over the past 25 years, only taking a dip last year. 


As for internet... a town in Oregon provides 100 mbps internet to the residents of their town.  This is faster internet than most places in the United States (and certainly faster than here).  They don't work with profit in mind, instead only seeking to meet costs.  They charge only $40/month for those speeds, which is far faster than you'll find anywhere else.  Government seeks to improve because of it's citizens, rather than because it's profitable.  I can't even get 10 mbps from Verizon, and I pay $30/month.  They'll never bring fios into this area, because it's simply not profitable.  Nobody will.

 

I find the part in bold very hard to believe.  Children taught in schools 50 or more years ago have made huge significant accomplishments.  Man on The Moon, internet, computer development... those are just a few things that come to mind.

 

I currently work around a bunch of young people fresh out of high school, and they are the most uneducated, clueless that I've seen in a long time.  They certainly know how to "google", but put them in an environment where they have no access to the internet, a computer or their smart phone and they just can't solve problems.  Keep in mind, these are military personnel that are new and are being trained to do a very important job that requires them to use their mind.  Most of them are between the ages of 19-21 or so.  The facility that they train in is classified and secured.  No tablets, no smart-phones, no internet, no recording devices, etc.

 

When we just "chat" about almost anything, they know quite a bit about "pop culture", but know very little about history (especially fairly recent history) or geography (both pretty important for them to do their job proficiently).  Their mechanical aptitude and basic physics, again important for them to do their job is very low.

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