public school can do so much better

These are of course extreme examples, but they are indicative of what some of these schools are going through then trying to work between a test based curriculum, no money, social issues and little actual control over their classrooms.
This is again always up for debate and I welcome anyone else’s opinions about these nutty happenings in public schools.

A small blurb on private school

I couldn’t have said this better myself,

Whatever you think your children need—deserve—from their school experience, assume that the parents at the nearby public housing complex want the same. No, don’t just assume it. Do something about it. Send your kids to school with their kids. Use the energy you have otherwise directed at fighting to get your daughter a slot at the competitive private school to fight for more computers at the public school. Use your connections to power and money and innovation to make your local school—the one you are now sending your child to—better. Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.

We are all in the same boat whether we recognize it or not.