Who needs school?

The Daily Nonpareil, the newspaper for Council Bluffs, posted an opinion article about the Council Bluffs School District's plan to fire 50 teachers to save money.  I posted the following comment, which they might not post, about that idea and the general state of education in the U.S.:

When my son hit 5, I had a tough decision of whether to send him to Council Bluffs schools or open enroll him into Lewis Central.  The PEOPLE, i.e., the teachers, principals, etc., I met in each district were all nice, well-meaning individuals. The thing that tipped the scales, however, was when I found out the kindergarten classes in Longfellow would hold a minimum of 25 children not counting kids outside their preschool.  I looked around at the TWO classrooms sharing ONE actual room and said, "Nope, not here."

Education in this country, let alone this city, is absolutely terrible. As long as our society continues to clamor for smaller tax bills, spending less on schools and salaries for teachers, we will NEVER compete with the rest of the world.  The people who spend tens of thousands of dollars getting a degree in education, the ones who actually know their stuff and have a passion to teach, will NOT work for $25,000 a year just to compete with spoiled, unruly kids glued to cell phones and parents who do NOTHING towards their children's education but complain.  I commend the teachers who already do this despite spending their own time and money on supplies for their students.  As long as this "culture" against education carries on, our technical and academic edge on China and Europe will dwindle down until we are a nation of proles fed solely on beer, football and cheap TVs. 

The situation of the Council Bluffs schools can more than likely be attributed to years of horrible administration of the already limited tax revenue from the city, state and federal governments and the short attention span most residents have towards education.  People without children ignorantly ask "Why should I spend tax money on schools and teachers?"  It's increasingly disheartening to hear the same words fall out of the mouth of politicians.  Where will your doctors come from? Who will design and build your bridges, roads and homes?  Should our children really spend most of their school days working towards the slim chance of becoming twitter proficient NBA players rather than learning how the world works, i.e., science, mathematics & physics?  The likelihood of your "snowflake" becoming the next computer programmer or biologist is a lot larger (and more rewarding) than being the next Tiger Woods. 

Those are larger questions than the one posted here, but the answer to this one is NOT to punish the teachers and in turn punish the students. The answer is to work up from the students towards the teachers and administrators to find out where the waste is occurring.  Getting rid of a few complacent administrators will save more money than firing 50 teachers.

Am I the only one who sees education as a "public good"? Something we all should strive for as a society?!?