>>>>>>>>>in the old days, teens did not have time to get bored easily working in their parents fields
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Don't know about your family. No one in mine has worked fields for many generations (at least 4, possibly many more than that), and neither did our teens exorcise their boredom by harming random people.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Tamar
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>I agree that boredom is a very lousy excuse for random violence. I am sure right now there are tens of thousands of bored kids aimlessly roaming the streets but not thinking of harming someone (let alone killing).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>This was my point. Most bored kids don't go out looking for someone to hurt. What was going on with these three that they made that choice?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Tamar
>>>>>
>>>>>Something tells me that these killers showed the violent and psychopathic side much earlier in life, probably as early as elementary school. Maybe schools should do more psychological evaluations of kids and deal with some earlier in life.
>>>>
>>>>What Mike said. We keep asking schools to do more and more with less and less.
>>>
>>>"less & less"? According to the OECD as of 2009 (last year data available) the US spends more per student than any other country in the world. Education spending at the state and local level has 30% in real dollars since 2000.
>>>http://www.oecd.org/edu/educationataglance2012oecdindicators-chapterbfinancialandhumanresourcesinvestedineducation-indicators.htm
>>>
>>>In terms of proportion of national wealth the US only lags Iceland and Korea.
>>>
>>>If you're just referring to primary then the Ireland, New Zealand and the Swiss outpace as well but the US remains above average.
>>>
>>>Overall spending on education is not the issue, how it is spent is.
>>>
>>
>>True. It would be very interesting to see those numbers broken down by, say, parental income. Everything I see and read indicates that we're running two public school systems in this country, one for the haves and one for the have-nots.
>>
>>Not exactly what I asked, but relevant:
>>
>>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/02/states-education-spending_n_3375632.html
>>
>>"The states that spent the most per student appear to be the ones that can best afford it. Median household income in nine of the 10 top-spending states is higher than the U.S. median."
>>
>>"Generally, the states that spend the most on education get the best results. A majority of the top-spending states are in the top 15 in fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading proficiency exams. Among the 10 states that spent the least per pupil, only Colorado was in the top 10 in any of these proficiency tests."
>>
>>This is more on point, though still not exactly what I was looking for:
>>
>>http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/more-40-low-income-schools-dont-get-fair-share-state-and-local-funds-department-
>>
>>"A new report from the U.S. Department of Education documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds."
>>
>>"The data reveal that more than 40 percent of schools that receive federal Title I money to serve disadvantaged students spent less state and local money on teachers and other personnel than schools that don't receive Title I money at the same grade level in the same district. "
>>
>>IOW, the state and locals see Title I funds as replacing their funds, rather than meant to remediate the poverty in those schools.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>This is simplified but still relevant : School funding is tied to property taxes and children are forced into schools based upon where they live. Doesn't seem like big news that the least funded schools are in the poorest neighborhoods.

Since education is a state responsibility, seems like the states should be smoothing that curve. Sure doesn't happen here in PA (where the governor's education priority seems to me harming public schools, so private companies can be given a shot), and I suspect doesn't happen in most places.

>
>We've spent more money on education than most of the world over the last several decades and yet the world is kicking our ass in reading, writing, math, science, language, whathaveyou. I know there's an Einsteinism in here somewhere, I wonder if we can find it.

I think, by now, we know that the big difference in which kids schools work for and which ones they don't is what they walk in the door with and what they go home to. What we haven't figured out is how to make our schools work for kids who don't get what they need at home.

Tamar