Public School is necessary for a prosperous society

The first point I wish to dispense with right off the bat, is the notion that since everything was so wonderful a century ago―before public schooling really got started―obviously public schools are a bad idea. Likewise pointing at spurious statistics from a time when the United States had one twentieth the population―and a far less diverse one at that―is either sadly misguided or just plain dishonest. There has never been a world like the one in this twenty-first century, nor a society like that of present day America; therefore, history is a poorly-fitting argument either for or against public schooling.

If we look at various 3rd world societies around the world, we see the correlated threads of lack of opportunity for education, high unemployment, famine, disease, and of course rampant crime. Correlation does not prove causation; however, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to point an accusing finger at the root problem―ignorance.
 
Attorney Horace Mann once said:
The Common School is the greatest discovery ever made by man...let it be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible and nine- tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete.
 
Yes, I know public schools are failing. They're not failing because they're a bad idea, they're failing because some politicians believe you can throw money at a problem and the problem will just magically be solved. Well, a bunch of new computers and a new library are not going to do shit, when the kids still can't read!

If I ran the school system, I'd have clearly set goals that would have to be met by 85% maybe 90% of the children in the classroom. Teachers meeting this goal would get a raise, teachers failing this goal would get a paycut. Three years of failure and teacher boxes up her crap and she's out the door! I'd also outlaw teacher unions because schools don't exist so that teachers can have a career, schools exist so kids can get an education, and all those taxpayer funded lobbyists have just about succeeded in flushing America's future down the toilet.
 
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