Ski and BG,What the kids do becomes beyond our contol by age of drivers license... WELL REGULATED means able to hit what you aim at.I'm a teacher, parent of a 29 year old (female) and a realistic NRA Life Member.

IMO, kids should be taught morals, sex ed and drug/alcohol awareness from an early age - which my school system stipulates as part of the curriculum. Not only should parents do this but I believe that schools have such huge impact on students that these topics need to be seriously covered by school systems, also. I'm just truly disappointed that for a woman as young as what she is, she has such "Victorian viewpoints" regarding the pro-choice/pro-life argument.

I find it amazing that anyone would want the state teaching their kids values and morals in the first place.  In my book and in my family, it is my wife and I who teach the values and morals, then we know for certain that we approve of them thus making the argument of whether they should be taught in school moot.  The answer is simply, NOI often wonder when and why Americans started to look to the state to teach their children everything.  I was raised and believe that school is to teach my child the things I cannot, such as reading, writing, science, and math.  Not drug awareness, morals, or the use of condoms.  I guess I am a Neanderthal who believes that parents should actively take responsibility for raising their children and not expect the local school board to do it for them.  I get to teach my kid the difference between right and wrong, not some faceless government entity.Furthermore, after the past three years of my son going to American schools I have serious doubts about their ability to teach even the basics much less morals and values.  We have discovered since arriving in Germany and enrolling my son in German schools (he is bilingual) that he is a full grade level behind his peers and will have to retake the sixth grade just to catch up.  This goes far to explain my disgust with American schools in General and the Belton Independent School District in particular.

No Child Left Behind... indeed... No Child Isn't Behind.

I hadnt heard that particular turn of phrase before but I like it.

I have to salute you for being in the trenches.  In my interactions with my son's American students I more often came away with the impression that the teachers were not the problem but rather that they were muffled and muzzled by a system with little to no in-built flexibility.  NCLB seems to have exaggerated this with its emphasis on formal testing that actually only detract from learning because it forces teachers to teach the test rather than the child.

NCLB also defunds lower performing schools which, IMO, is stupid.  Wouldn't common sense say the lower performing schools need more funding?  ???   Especially seeing the worst schools are usually the poorest.NCLB meant well, and I do think more federal funding should be provided for education, but there has to be a better way to manage it.

I'm not entirely familiar with the provisions of NCLB, but isn't the alternative problematic as well?  How would lower-performing schools held accountable?  Seems like there are difficulties in either approach.I'm not sure that throwing money at education is actually the answer.  Once in a while you hear stories about how private schools manage equal or better results while providing far less dollars per pupil.  I think the public schools argue that private schools don't need to admit just any student (e.g. bad students), so they naturally will have better performing students.  That may be true, but I still wonder what relation increased funding would have on student performance.  Obviously a minimum has to be achieved to fund the necessaries of studying (desks, books, etc) but I seriously doubt that public schools manage their budgets as efficiently as possible.  They likely dedicate money in areas which aren't essential to learning, and administrative/bureaucratic costs have likely increased as well.

That's why I said better management is needed.  I just think education is important enough to put more into it than only 3% of the federal budget, which is the current funding.

It would be interesting to find out what %age is funding the federal prisons....