[theultdev]

I don't think you need to trust what "conservatives claim" when you see the test scores and literacy rates.

American public schooling is and has been broken for awhile.

[bongodongobob]

Pretty much any teacher will tell you it's because parents aren't involved and treat school like daycare. When Mom and dad come home and veg out on their phones and TV after work, the kids learn that as well. The ones that succeed have parents that are involved with their schooling which is less and less likely these days. Teachers are quitting left and right because of it.

[theultdev]

Of course they would say that.

Blaming the parents and kids is just a scapegoat.

But yes, the kids that succeed are the ones that the parents are involved, because the teachers are useless.

The quality of teachers has gone way down, especially since federal student loans.

Anyone can become a teacher, it's a default path, and it shows.

[bongodongobob]

You're part of the problem and know nothing of the shift that these teachers have seen over the last 30 years.

[theultdev]

I've experienced terrible teachers (especially math teachers) and had to teach myself.

I've seen good schools crumble due to terrible policies and teachers.

You're enabling the problem by apologizing for these poor performing teachers.

Literally all of 8th grade was learning how to count to 10 in other languages and some stupid cross-stitching art. In Math!!!

Luckily I learned through programming on my own time, but once you're behind from one shitty math teacher, it's hard to catch up.

[ty6853]

Lol kids are in school 30+ hours a week. When you look at the basic curricula they have to learn it is 99% on the school if it cannot be taught in that time frame, even if the kid is going home to a 4 hour shift in the slave labor camps and only ghouls for parents.

[alistairSH]

There are many reasonable criticisms of modern public schooling, but the claim that's it's completely broken (and needs burnt to the ground, as many conservatives will claim) is hyperbole and unhelpful to making actual productive change.

And the notion that private schooling (in general) is better is hard to believe. When we looked at private schools for our son, test scores and college admittance were only marginally higher and much of the gap was simple selection bias (private schools are not legally required to take all students, so don't deal with disabled, disadvantaged, or otherwise non-exceptional students). The only time private was substantially better was hyper-elite, hyper-expensive schools (Sidwell Friends, DC vs Paul VI, Fairfax vs the publics in FCPS).

[watwut]

I did checked them. And while it is not perfect, it is not a massive horrible disaster conservatives like to make it. It is just not unfixably broken as it is called. Compared to Europe, it does fine, being above average or around there depending on the test.

Also, America do tend to be country of extremes, so it has some very good public schools and some bad ones. Bad ones being in poor place. And it just so happen that the countries doing better tend to have less poverty and less issues related to it.