[quote=flu]
1)Spend time educating your own kid. It’s more effective than “outsourcing” it to someone else anyway.[/quote]Agree to a certain point. After elementary school though, you really have to have competent teachers. Can you really expect to teach your kids Calculus, biology, history, etc? Calling it outsourcing isn’t really correct imo.

[quote=flu]
2)Follow how the education system is setup in asia, where kids need to pass entrance exams to get into the “best” public schools. Then take your “best” teachers and put them in those top schools and pay them more than your not so best schools.[/quote]Not quite true. I don’t believe that’s the case, at least from what I know and heard. You are assigned to specific jr and especially high school based on where you live. Hence areas known to have good schools have higher real estate value. There are some PUBLIC high schools that you have to take an exam to get in but those are not that common.

Talking about schools in Asia, teachers are especially respected/revered. Since here $$$ seems to gain respect (ok when earned legit) paying more to teachers would be a good idea. Hence $100,000 salary for QUALIFIED teachers.

[quote=flu]
1)If you’re a smart/hardworking kid you get into the best schools regardless of economic background you are from. This eliminates the issue with kids coming from a poor family otherwise smart/hard working not having access to the “best” public schools in the U.S. Unfortunately, good education is tied too much to private money, and because public education is essentially “socialized”, everyone one else who doesn’t pay for private education gets the same generic material regardless of kid’s capabilities. This no-kid-left-behind thing, I think is a big problem, because it put too much emphasis on bringing bottom people up to average and not doing anything for top people.[/quote]That’s why they have AP classes in high school, to give hard working kids the education they deserve. You comment that public education is “socialized” goes directly against the idea of democracy depending good public education. So you are saying we are using a socialist system to prepare kids for a Democratic nation? Any how seems like they are dropping no-kid-left-behind.
Another comment on the term ‘socialist’ or ‘socialized’. It seems like GOP/conservative throw around ‘socialist’ to try to label what they used to call ‘liberals’.

[quote=flu]
3)If you’re a parent with a kid that isn’t #1 and you arent financially at #2, then well you fall back on #3 which is you spend your own time teaching your kids.[/quote]I HIGHLY doubt a family that’s not well off financially can spend the time or have the intellect to teach own kids.

[quote=flu]
Case in point: Carmel Valley school district parents pretty much dumped donation after donation into saving all those ESD extracurric programs when the district announced a budget shortfall and those programs/teachers would have to be cut. Because of parental donations, those teachers/jobs/classes were saved.[/quote]And imagine what is happening at districts where parents CAN NOT dump donations after donations? Such people exist in any society you know…