I think it is a side note on the charter schools issue. The main driver is terrible standards and discipline in public schools. There is a reason atheists are putting their kids in charter schools too, and even religious schools.
I hear you, solid point looking at the current state of public education. The next question is: why is our public education system so lacking?
My recollection is that ever since science started to counter strict religious teachings, a significant portion of the country stopped trying to improve the public education system, and instead began to undermine it.
> ever since science started to counter strict religious teachings, a significant portion of the country stopped trying to improve the public education
The Scopes Monkey trial was in 1925 [1]. The issue has been divisive for longer than American public education started failing.
IMO it started with no child left behind, and a wave of public sentiment and legal precedent that places the worst performing and behaving students above the majority.
I have a teacher friends who have to deal with students attacking them. One had a student break their hand and they could not suspend or expell them. Imagine trying to teach a class under such conditions.
That is not mutually exclusive. First, you can absolutely sacrifice the median to improve the average. Second, I was pointing out when I think it started. One hypothesis is that the negative impacts of no child left behind and similar programs were initially mitigated/compartmentalized by the heavy academic tracking used at the time. My understanding is that much of this has changed over time with a reduction in number of tracks.
