1 We operate on a system with three six-week terms per semester. Our district has a policy of "no grades below a 50", on the theory that the lower grades could make it impossible for a kid to ever pass. We teachers don't have a problem with that per se -- except when it comes to the third six-week term. After all, there is no way a student can "recover" from the final term of the semester. What's more, the kids know this, and some figure their average and "slide" during that third term, knowing that they cannot fail the semster if they do so. And we won't get in to the question of a kid who misses 90% of the semester but ends up with a grade of 50.

2 I can see the reasoning behind that sort of system, but I do think it's still dishonest. If the child did 20% of the work the first third, they deserve a 20. If they do 100% of the work the remaining two-thirds, that averages out to 73. Some people aren't supposed to have high school diplomas, and some people simply do not want them. Why do we FORCE people to get them, especially when they have so little meaning anymore?

3 "Government schools really do stink?" Excuse me. Which government schools? Where? How, exactly do they stink and why? Does not the fact that someone blew the whistle indicate that at least someone is at least trying to do right within this single school? Certainly there is administrative stupidity in some schools, but not the majority. If that was true, we would be facing a very real, national disaster. We are not. If a school board is filled with ninnies, the voters--and here we assume they are not themselves ninnies--have the means to eject them from office and replace them with capable people. That ninnies retain control of school boards is not a comment on the schools and the teachers who struggle mightily to improve them, but on the public who all too often, just don't care.

4 I went to school in Charlotte back in 74-76. The system was atrocious then. Anyone who had money sent their kids to private school. (We didn't have money.) One of my closest friends moved to Charlotte five years ago. The system is still atrocious. Two of her kids are in private school. The other is in public school. N- has the math and language skills of an eighth grader but will be graduating this next year. The school passed her in all her classes, despite the fact that she failed most of them, at least by grade. It's at least as bad as this post describes and I don't see how people can't know it. But they don't act on it. That's obvious. Otherwise, thirty years later, it wouldn't still be terrible.

5 Mike -- the fact that someone blew the whistle was good -- but it was a former employee, and the school actually admitted that they lied and cheated, but then declared that NOTHING WAS WRONG. How can anyone consider a system that claims lying and cheating is not wrong is anything but garbage? Also, I do believe we are facing a national disaster. Take a look at how many people who have high school diplomas from the 21st century that cannot calculate their own overtime pay, find France on a map, or name the second president of the United States. As for the school board being replaced, you have to realize that the voters do not have that choice. In Mecklenburg County, the school board is ruled by the Democrats who gerrymander districts to absolutely ensure there is zero competition for the school board -- no one else has a chance -- and the elections are rigged in that illegal votes are counted in the very corrupt system. Suzi, I think the biggest reason people don't act on it is that they don't want to admit "their" school is bad. If they did that, they've have to admit that their child was getting by. It's much easier for people to just look the other way, send them to private school (as you mentioned), or just teach them at home. It is a horrible, broken, garbage-filled system. Government should absolutely and entirely get out of the business of schooling because they simply cannot do the job. The education system today is about money and power and has absolutely nothing to do with actual education or learning.