[monster]

I'm with footie. It is your responsibility as a parent to make sure your offspring is ready for life. Schools are an excellent tool, but they are no more than that. Parents need to make responsible schooling choices and monitor their children's development as learning, functioning human beans. You don't expect a car to get you from A to B without you putting anything in to the operation. Why would you expect a school to do that for your kid?

I do not homeschool (for everyone's sanity) but I picked a school that emphasised learning skills and human bean development rather than learning facts by rote. And I got involved and made sure it was performing the way I wanted, and where I saw gaps, I picked up the slack. That's my responsibility. It's every parent's responsibility. But sadly too many see school as this great gadget that's there to make their lives easier and take away the responsibility. Like the urban legend about the guy who set his winnebago to cruise and then went in the back to sleep/make coffee and was surprised when it crashed and he sued the manufacturers. no-one expects the cars to get the passengers from a to b without careful guidance and lots of input. Some cars are stick shift and require more input, some cars cost a lot of money and do almost everything for you. But none work without a driver.

Not everyone has the same school choices, but there are always choices. School is not a childminder. You have a kid, the local school is crap, there are no other schools, you need to go to work, you find a way to work and homeschool or you move. If you can't do that, you need to hand the child over to someone who can.