I designed the book as a powerful argument to pull kids out of the schools. I keep hearing from folks who say, some gov. schools are okay, my kids turned out ok, went to the Ivy League or whatever.

And it occurred to me that I really don’t hit on academic performance much until chapter 7. The book really focuses on the moral vacuum in the schools. Whether or not you are religious, there is no moral compass in the schools, which I think explains some of the bizarre and aberrant behavior we are reading more and more about.

And backing up event further into Maslow’s pyramid of needs, these days parents need to be concerned about the sheer physical safety of their kids in gov. schools, even suburban ones. There were three gang rapes in October for instance.

I think that the libertarian movement has great ideas but poor strategies. Too much focus on politics and not enough on direct action.

That’s what my book is about in the end.

These two links contain an exam that was required to GRADUATE 8th grade and prior to entering high school given in Kansas in 1895. Interestingly enough, the test is real and snopes.com apparently attempts to “explain” why the test is rather irrelevant:

see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2307857/posts and

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.asp

Please understand that government does not only debase government but government debases the “private sector” as well. Which is why I am not sure one would want a Teddy Kennedy to ever be in trust of a national “voucher” program – it would be the end of private education entirely.

What can each of us do to convince the majority of the American people to see the fallacy in Gov. control in all facets of our lives and how do we convince a majority of mothers that Gov. indoctranation & dumbing down of their kids in school is not the right thing to do for their education ?

Myron, I used the same reference in the book.

Government schools contradict the whole notion of a free society. One had to give in the long run and I think we need which “gave.”

Robert, Tooley is great and quoted in the book. I did not, however, have time to use all his research since I wanted a real focused book.

The website site will ultimately have all that valuable material that couldn’t fit into the book.

And great point about private schools. The government school colossus has infected the private schools in many ways and prevented a real free market from developing, a point noted in the book.

George, I think you will like the take-no-prisoners approach of the book.

I don’t see a link to the exam you were referring to.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+Beautiful+tree&x=13&y=16

I’ll quote Abe about not enduring “half slave and half free” — just as private insurance cannot compete with government insurance, it’s impossible for private schools surviving intact (with integrity) against government schools. It’s not just parents forking over $ 35,000 for the former and another additional $ 16,000 / student in taxes to the latter. It’s that private schools “conform” to expected “standards of learning” that the public universities, public research-funded universities, SAT establishment, etc. indirectly impose on them. All governments should get OUT of the school “business” entirely.