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I guess the rest of the industrialized world has beaten all those problems. They all spend much less. Most have much larger class sizes, older facilities, fewer resources and virtually no support staff but somehow they are ahead of the US in nearly every measure of academic achievement. Before you repeat the standard cant of the education establishment perhaps you will look at the rest of the world and explain how they can do so much better with less. Within the US, why do the lowest spending states routinely outperform the highest spending states? I agree with you that ADD or whatever is massively over diagnosed. Somehow teachers used to keep order with larger average class sizes and no drugs. My knuckles were rapped and my butt beat on more tha one occasion. Much better option than filling a kid with behavior/mood altering drugs.

http://www.alec.org/task-forces/education



I'm not sure which countries ALEC has studied, but I can tell you from my experience with friends who have school-aged kids in Germany, they DO NOT do with less. Yes, the facilities are older, but then in Europe, they don't go out and build a new building every time the wind shifts by 5mph, like we do here, so older buildings are the norm. They are better maintained, and there IS a strong support staff. Now, granted, they don't waste tons of money on extracurricular nonsense like football programs, and bussing teams around, but there is a wealth of extracurricular sports and activities available, outside of the school, since each town, village, district has Football(Soccer) Clubs at all levels. Plus, there is a wealth of outdoor activity trails for hiking, running, biking, etc..., and practically every town, even the tiniest village, has a Sporthalle (basically their version of the Y, but not so pricey!) And, their schools work more closely with local industry to prepare their kids for a future. Those who are techically oriented undergo a 2 year apprentice program at a factory, WHILE they also are in school and do classes. And those who are headed to a University go to a different type of High School than those going into service jobs or those going into technical skills. Is it a perfect system, no! It does have a tendency to pigeonhole some kids, and just as with our system, some kids fall through the cracks. Sorry, I don't think any amount of resources or money will ever prevent some kids from falling through the cracks. Yes, the goal should be a 0% tolerance for kids missing out on education, or falling through the cracks, and I think most teachers strive for that, although, just as with ANY profession, you are also going to have those teachers who are just their for the paycheck, or who have slightly off-kilter ideals of how to train children.