What happens when the parents decide that they want to have thier kids go into a trade school, so the child goes to trade school and learns nothing but that trade, than they turn 18 and become an adult, and it turns out that they don't even like that trade and they want nothing to do with it, but their parents forced it upon them? That doesn't sound like a just and free world. Public education is suppose to give them a strong wide foundation so that when they turen 18 they know enough about everything that they can decide what they want to do and already have some of the knowledge to go pursue that.

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

Staying on topic No the state hasn't the right to say no to home schooling. The one thing good about my wifes family was her brother who is a principal at a Christian school and his wife who did teach, decided to home school their 5 children. 3 who have now gotten scholarships to colleges. The other two will get them too. They cover more than public schools with the requirements that goes with the 3 choices of FED school packages. And if anyone is into looking it up when stats time comes most teachers say the same things about home schooled children. They are better mannered, and better educated, and th escores prove it each time.
And yes every child should be required to complete HS. We have enough morons as it is already. Why would any school allow some to quit once they reach a certain age? Why?
That defeats the reason they started school in the first place.
Indiana raised the age that a child could quit school to 16 so my X step son has to wait till he is 16 this May 19 to do what his daddy says is cool. Quit school. I think by the time the boy is 18 he will have a police record. A shame. An one reason my wife is dead her children turning on her and her wish for the best for them. It tore at her heart. All I could do was watch and try to console her.

__________________
Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

As I mentioned before, I would like to see a voucher system. What that means is parents have the amount of money that goes to educate their children in the public school system. They can home school, request a district transfer to a school they prefer (for example, near where they work) or it could go to a private school.

The one hang up is using federal money for sectarian schools. And the problem has been most people writing up voucher proposals have a religious or even racial agenda.

This is the reality of public schools. The largest part of every dollar is spend on transportation and administration. Transportations is the largest part of Special Edcation for the students that need special adapted buses with wheelchair lifts, etc... For most larger school districts, administration takes a enormous amount of money. It is not uncommon for such districts with Superintendents making $175k to $200k, then they will require a high paid head secretary (75k) and Assistant Superintendent ($110-$125k). Then you have Principals ($75k-$100k), and Assistant or Vice Principals ($65k-$80k). A veteran teacher will make $60-$80k). Then some teachers have Teacher Assistants / Paraprofessionals to help hand English as a second language students or special needs students ($10.50 p hr to $15 p hr partime).

The classroom instruction itself recieves pennies on every dollar spent on education.

And school districts in rapid growth regions cannot build new schools fast enough to keep up with the increase in enrollment and area population.

Nationwide, the No Child Left Behind bureaucracy has become a gang of high test score fixate Nazis. Enrichment programs and programs based on science experiments, art and craft tie in activies, acting out plays representing periods of history, the school garden, etc... are becoming rare while teaching using drill and kill techniques teach toward specific questions on the academic tests. Most of those questions require filling in bubbles in multiple choice questions. So students are becoming skilled bubblers but are lost with their creativity, or high critical thinking skills.

The real life situation can be emulated best in schools by students forming cooperative learning teams to solve problems as they would do on most jobs. Even a construction job from start to finish would require mathematics and geometry. This style of instruction is the best match to a real world situation in a career job, but the priority of No Child Left Behind is to crank out skilled bubblers.

I really think the answer is at the STATE level and coming up with a comprehensive voucher system that is not generated from specific religious or special interest groups.

__________________
National Debt =

Vouchers do not drive up the costs unless you listen to the Bush administration. They will tell you that they will have to set up yet another gargantuan bureaucracy.

__________________
National Debt =

Tough. They wasted their time. What happens if a kid goes to public school and then decides they want nothing to do with those subjects and pick up a trade? They wasted theri time. They are to young to choose for themselves, their parents should make that choice. I think most will still choose basic education, but they at least get to choose.

They have been doing QUALITY trade schools in Germany and other European nations. But when you sign on to a trade school, you have to recognize they have been in existence hundreds of years. It is a great honor to follow in you father's and grandfather' footsteps.

__________________
National Debt =

So you all would be cool if a teenager decides they would rather play xbox instead of going to school? You feel they should have the 'choice'? Some utopia you are dreaming of there...

And as for trade schools, most, if not all, require you to have graduated from high school so that you have the basics of math, language skills and science. Even in a 'trade', you need to be able to do basic math and understand how to effectively communicate.

Absolutely. Federal power is supposed to be limited and last I checked, education was intended to be a state issue. We need to have a good education system, but let's keep it to our states to set the standards.

Who said that? I think most said the PARENTS should decide. The kid could talk to the parent and debate what they want to do.

Because there are a sadly larger than one would like percentage of parents who just do not care. The only reason they force their kids to school is because they know THEY will get into trouble.