Did my parents not care at all about their kids?

[David S]

Well it appears all the conservatives here think parents who send their kids to private schools are just lazy selfish bastards who couldn't care less about their kids. I guess mine are since me and my brother all went to public schools, and my youngest brother is still going to a public school and will definately go to a public high school as well. My parents were not fond of private schools at all. One of my mom's friends sent her kids to a private school, and I sometimes heard my mom talking about how stupid she thought that was, and how stupid it was to pay so much for something you could easily get for free. So were my parents just heartless bastards who didn't care if their kids failed? If so that's rather odd considering all they sacrificed for us (moving off the reservation to a place that was a much better environment for us even though it meant commuting an hour to work and back every day, buying both me and my brother our cars and paying for our college education now, and paying off that huge credit card debt I incurred my freshman year...but hey, no parent who sends their kids to a public school can care about their kids!)

Your mother makes the point; why pay for something when you can get it for free. If there was a voucher system where she could send you wherever she wanted, would she still have have chosen the same way? Maybe, maybe not. But at least she would have had a choice. With the present government run  monopoly on education she had essentially no choice.

[David S]

Well it appears all the conservatives here think parents who send their kids to private schools are just lazy selfish bastards who couldn't care less about their kids. I guess mine are since me and my brother all went to public schools, and my youngest brother is still going to a public school and will definately go to a public high school as well. My parents were not fond of private schools at all. One of my mom's friends sent her kids to a private school, and I sometimes heard my mom talking about how stupid she thought that was, and how stupid it was to pay so much for something you could easily get for free. So were my parents just heartless bastards who didn't care if their kids failed? If so that's rather odd considering all they sacrificed for us (moving off the reservation to a place that was a much better environment for us even though it meant commuting an hour to work and back every day, buying both me and my brother our cars and paying for our college education now, and paying off that huge credit card debt I incurred my freshman year...but hey, no parent who sends their kids to a public school can care about their kids!)

Your mother makes the point; why pay for something when you can get it for free. If there was a voucher system where she could send you wherever she wanted, would she still have have chosen the same way? Maybe, maybe not. But at least she would have had a choice. With the present government run  monopoly on education she had essentially no choice.

Ser David, if you want to buy a wine, would you rather take one that you already paid for and tastes like vinegar, or spend a few extra dollars and get a quality French wine?

Personally I'd rather buy beer. I would not argue with your assessment of public schools being like vinegar, although the public schools in our area are pretty good. My point to Born on the Floor  is that by funding the public schools with tax dollars and not allowing those dollars to be used for private schools the state gives a huge cost advantage to public schools. I haven't priced private schools, but in public schools the per student spending in our area is about $7000. If private schools cost as much then the parents would have to shell out $7000 per child each year for private school. Over grades 1 through 12 that would amount to $84,000 per child or $168,000 for two children. Thats a pretty stiff cost for most parents to absorb, which pretty much eliminates the private option for people of average means.