Over on Hit’n'Run there’s a post about the Libertarian Party convention. In the comments someone quoted a bit about Mike Gravel re: public government education, which exploded into a purity fight of sorts. I had a comment to add there, but the server squirrels are still pissed about the possibility of yet another Spurs finals appearance so I’m sharing it here:

Can’t we just agree that, while for anything beyond basic reading & math government schools suck ass on average, the real problem is parents who don’t give a fuck, and a huge reason private schools tend to do better is sending your kid to one tends to be a sign of giving a fuck?

I went to shitty public schools during most of my childhood. However, my parents encouraged me to learn on my own, so I did. A lot of old friends of mine didn’t have that. One can believe government-run education fails a cost/benefit analysis without automatically believing private schools are a miracle cure-all. Hell, IMO the belief that it’s that simple smacks of the same type of utopianism that’s driving the current education establishment to gradually seize power and responsibility from parents.

Explanation of post title here.