GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - How good (or bad) is the public school system in the US?

kane · 10-13-2013, 11:15 PM

In reality it varies greatly depending on where you live. School budgets rely heavily on local and state taxes so schools that are in areas that have more money tend to be of a higher quality than those in poor areas. In my state you can go to a high school in one city that looks like a college and is fantastic and then travel 30 minutes and be at a high school that looks like a prison.

There is one thing that really bothers me about many grade schools (schools for kids up to 8th grade). They don't fail anyone anymore. When I was in grade school you had to achieve a certain grade level your 7th and 8th grade years to graduate. If you didn't meet the minimum you didn't graduate and you either had to retake 8th grade or go to summer school to make it up. That doesn't happen now. My nephew literally failed 15 of 18 classes in 8th grade and they let him graduate. One of his teachers told my brother that they will only hold kids back if the parents ask them to. The reason is that with the No Child Left Behind bill that Bush passed schools now get money based on graduation rates so many schools now just graduate everyone so they can get paid.

10-13-2013, 11:15 PM
kane Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: portland, OR Posts: 20,684	In reality it varies greatly depending on where you live. School budgets rely heavily on local and state taxes so schools that are in areas that have more money tend to be of a higher quality than those in poor areas. In my state you can go to a high school in one city that looks like a college and is fantastic and then travel 30 minutes and be at a high school that looks like a prison. There is one thing that really bothers me about many grade schools (schools for kids up to 8th grade). They don't fail anyone anymore. When I was in grade school you had to achieve a certain grade level your 7th and 8th grade years to graduate. If you didn't meet the minimum you didn't graduate and you either had to retake 8th grade or go to summer school to make it up. That doesn't happen now. My nephew literally failed 15 of 18 classes in 8th grade and they let him graduate. One of his teachers told my brother that they will only hold kids back if the parents ask them to. The reason is that with the No Child Left Behind bill that Bush passed schools now get money based on graduation rates so many schools now just graduate everyone so they can get paid.