Unpopular opinion: The USA reached this state due to a lack of affordable, quality education.

I’m open to contradiction.

As a product of that education system, you are right on the money. Our major downfall was when we started tying school funding with standardized testing with the class of 1994. My class of 1993 got to take the same tests as a pilot, but were the last generation to receive education that wasn’t largely geared towards those tests.

I didn’t know that, and it makes a lot of sense. If true, your input on this aggravates the scenario even more. Thank you for sharing!

If you think that’s bad, and you aren’t familiar with how fucked up we are, let me tell you how school is funded in my state (and it varies by state). You would think that taxes from corporations would pay a lot, and they can, in places that have corporations.

However, in rural areas, like most of my state in Ohio it is funded by whatever tax money you can generate in your little county. So, since ours have little business, it is largely from people’s property taxes. Well, you would think that is fine, and it could be if people cared about things like education here. But, old people tend to see it as another expense and constantly vote down new levies when more money is needed (you have to ask for a vote when budgets need increased). So, the education system is largely skewed in favor of wealthier areas, areas with business, and of course the people that can afford private school.

No, I thought basic education was covered by federal taxes. You’re telling me it’s funded at the county level?? WTF?! Why?

It’s a mix. A lot of our buildings and that require a lot of local funds, plus operations and that. We all get the same base per student from the feds, but vast disparities on filing in the rest based on where you live.

Okay, so does that mean each state can make changes to the curriculum? That doesn’t sound that bad to me… you’re essentially like a continent, and amendments to the curriculum could bring some benefits. But I guess the base standards still apply. The one thing I’d caution against, though, is the downgrading of problem-solving skills.

You really don’t know much of anything about the diverse topic of education in the US to have such strongly held opinions for it.

I didn’t know you had a worst educational system that you have. I just knew the individuals.