hi tkc,
i understand that the education system and individual schools have flaws. i understand that money doesn't always resolve issues. i understand folks have different attitudes about discipline, incentives etc and i haven't offered an opinion on these things. i don't share your views on school lunches, but so what.
i have a bedrock belief in public education. if you believe in that, then you must fund it. taxes are the way this is done. but how much those taxes should be is a question for the ballot box. neither more nor less money is always going to be the right answer.
beyond this, i generally believe in variety and choice. head teachers should be able to run the schools they administer. people should have a choice of schools to attend. so the decisions about what is the right and wrong way to operate is local. and over time, i would hope that well run schools will do well.
but from this perch, i am not going to seek to define how best to run a school. i think it really depends on local and individual factors.
one additional thing. i'm wary of market forces in an education environment. the risk is you turn education into a sausage factory. but each kid is different. figuring how to get the best and most valuable experience for each of them is a hard problem.
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