>Tamar,
>
>>>More funding for education is not the answer either. In the US billions of dollars are syphoned out of our school districts by the Federal gov't to fund the Department of [no]Education. This Dept does absolutely nothing to further education in this country. All it does is line the pockets of thousands of non-educators in gov't jobs. This Dept was created in the late 70s by then President Jimmy Carter as a payoff to the Teacher Unions who helped get him elected.
>>
>>Mark - that's really misleading. As far back as I can remember, there was a department called "Health, Education and Welfare" (or HEW for short). What happened was that that department was split into two: Health and Human Services, and Education.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>And.. After spending all that money over the years just exactly what is the state of education in Philadelphia these days? <g>
>

First of all, you're not responding to my point. Mark claimed that Carter started the Education department and that was misleading. That was my point.

>Money alone is somply not the answer it seems...

Agreed, though money is certainly necessary. But until we solve the social problems that make it so hard to teach and learn in many schools, we're not going to get very far. We've asked far too much of our schools over the last 30 years or so. We expect them to solve all the problems of poverty, rather than attacking those problems directly, so that children come to school ready and able to learn.

Tamar