[Happy Monkey]

A little caveat - public schools don't make up for bad parenting. An unmotivated student will not do well in a public school. But a student who is willing to work, and has parents who encourage him/her will get a lot out of it.

I and my three siblings all went through the DC public school system. Granted, it was some of the better schools in that system, but we had our share of bad teachers. There was a lot of room for improvement, but three of us got into excellent schools (one is still in high school) - Carnegie Mellon, St. Johns (not the basketball one), and MIT.

I guess my point is that the success of all schooling is based on how hard the parent is willing to work, and the experience of actually going to school is a learning experience in and of itself.