America's Public Schools Are Failing To Form Engaged Citizens

My daughter works as a teacher in the same public school her kids attend. A large part of the teachers, time is spent dealing with kids who are disruptive. Unfortunately, the administration is loath to deal with chronic disciplinary problems in a decisive manner. And when push comes to shove with disbelieving or uncooperative parents the administration always blinks.

As a result, my grandkids attend public school mostly for socialization, club activities and sports, while also completing home school curriculum for academics.

I talk to HS kids from all over. My caseload includes (or has included) kids from Hawaii to Alaska to Florida to Maine - and most of the states in between. Urban, rural, suburban, red state, blue state, purple state.

And, with very few exceptions, these kids don't understand our Constitution, don't understand the census, don't even know WHY we declared our independence, don't understand how the electoral college works, let alone why, and less than half can name their own governor. Even fewer can name their US representative. I'm talking HS students, not grade schoolers.

Our schools are no longer teaching our students how and why our government works. With that frame, how do we expect them to be responsible citizens?

Depends where you are. We have really good schools here in the Cedarburg School District. While I could be wrong about the exact numbers, I believe there are around 11,000 school districts in the US. The Cedarburg School Dustrict was rated 92nd for best teachers