On the first level, it's just been turned into a baby-setting system. It passes people regardless; children graduate scarcely able to read. It has, thus, failed in its primary purpose (i.e. educating children adequately). My little brother was learning about the Roman Empire, for instance, and the teacher didn't teach him who the first Roman Emperor was (and didn't know after I told him to ask). Colleges teaching a foreign language (I am familiar with ancient ones) must give definitions even for basic structures like nouns, and someone coming into college should already know that.
This failure slows down the secondary education process from the second example above. The university must teach them concepts they should be able to take for granted. This, in its turn, weakens the university, so that our youth fail to get as good an education as they can there.
This is something new. I talk to my former professors, and they explain to me that they didn't always have to do this. I talk to other older folks, and they tell me about learning grammar even into high school. It's a change, and it's a change for the worst. I suspect this has something to do a) with the degradatin of American sense of responsibility so that it leaks into the family and b) the monopoly of the public education system.
I, therefore, support a voucher system, but one that is intended to replace the public schools. Let parents hire a home schooler or take the kids to another school. The competition and capitalism will drive down prices and increase the quality of the product. It would work like our capitalist system has in other areas.
It would also remove a stumbling block to the separation of church and state. No matter what, schools must teach children something relating to religion, some philosphy, some morality. This removes this problem. Nobody can complain their kids are taught materialism or that some form of far east meditation was used or that they were forced to pray a Christian prayer. In each case, it was a private institution or individual teaching the practice. Just pull the kid out and transfer him/her.
