<p>Mini, I’ll have to think about that.</p>
<p>Simba, what do you mean? There are plenty of parents who care and are passionate about their kids’ educational opportunities. Sure there are parents whom are disconnected and have not a care, but commited parents often hit a bureaucratic wall. For proof of earnest parents, go see the documentary ‘Waiting for Superman.’</p>
<p>Lake, I guess my ‘plenty’ are more than your kind of ‘plenty’</p>
<p>SEATTLE — Blaming teachers for low test scores, poor graduation rates and the other ills of American schools has been popular lately, but a new survey wags a finger closer to home.</p>
<p>An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what’s wrong with the U.S. education system — more than teachers, school administrators, the government or teachers unions.</p>
<p>[TriValley</a> Central](<a href=“pinalcentral.com | Pinal County's Information Source”>pinalcentral.com | Pinal County's Information Source)</p>
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Mini, I really don’t have a clue what ax you’re grinding, but as a resident of Stamford, a city with every social and economic stratum you can imagine, I assure you 1) that none of the members of the Board of Ed, many of whom I know personally, are Wall Street honchos or otherwise criminals, and 2) the real estate around the schools located in poor areas of the city is of value to no one. I would assume the same applies to Danbury, another mixed city. As for Greenwich, it has few poor and no schools that could be considered “schools of the poor”. You simply have no idea what you’re talking about. I understand that you have barely contained fury against those who caused the financial meltdown, but venting your anger by making crazy claims about the local educational institutions is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Money to fund those schools comes from real estate taxes. The real estate taxes are paid for by whom exactly? What keeps the value of that real estate up? I am sure that the residents of Stamford - including all the employees of Goldman Sachs, Citibank, the former Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros., Morgan Stanley, etc., and all the law firms, banks, analysts, real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, foreclosure agencies, document companies, prostitution rings, etc. - don’t think of themselves as benefiting from criminal conspiracies, no less being part of them (though, in fact, a very, very large proportion actually know it, but it’s hard to admit to oneself), but that doesn’t change a thing</p>
<p>And if you think the real estate around those schools is of no value, may I invite you to a tour of the South Bronx? (or would you simply like a chart of real estate values there?)</p>
<p>Isn’t this a real-life case for the voucher system? I know this is a sidebar to the OP’s topic but I feel it’s a logical segue.</p>