It's not a good idea to look at the news online, I get distracted way too much. There is an article about kids that start college classes during their high school years. The article praises these kids for moving ahead because they are going to be able to enter the job market earlier than their peers that wait till they graduate high school.

--89 percent of colleges said the curricula of the courses taken by high school students were the same as they were for regular college students; 3 percent said the courses were specially designed for the high school students; and 8 percent said the curricula varied.

--26 percent of college programs on high school campuses were taught by college instructors, 32 percent by high school instructors while 42 percent used both.

--40 percent of colleges said high schoolers and parents paid part or all of the tuition for the college classes, and 19 percent said there was no charge for students and parents. The rest of the colleges reported varying amounts of payments by students and parents.

The problem with these numbers is that it is just another way to keep affluent people ahead of those that can't afford it. If families are paying for their kids to take these classes, what are the kids supposed to do that don't have the money for such programs? One would say the families can't send their kids to these schools because the parents can't afford it, basically because they aren't working as hard as they could to be able to afford it, or they are squandering their money on something other than their kids.
I say this is bullshit. Our public school systems are being dumbed down, and students are making it through high school learning less than they could and should be learning. What makes me say that? I am attending classes right now at the local university, and I've had the opportunity to talk to some of the students attending school that did their high school years in another country, specifically Iran, France and Sri Lanka. These people all have told me the same thing; their basic first year courses here in the States were a breeze, because basic course information being taught at freshman college level here is being taught to the high school kids in these other countries. I also have kids that attend the local high school. If you are over 40 years old chances are your homework from high school took you at least an hour to do every night. Today, I can ask my kids daily if they have homework, and the answer is usually no. Half the time it's because it's so easy they can do it in their spare time at school, the rest of the time because they simply haven't been assigned any. For me at college I spend more than one hour doing school work away from the classroom for every hour I spend in class, and that's just during the week. I spend extra time on the weekends as well. Granted this is work for a 3-4 GPA, and there are students that do far less and still pass their courses, but the serious students I talk to spend at least that amount of time. The point is, our high schools are not preparing our kids for college, and if the kids want to get the preparation on their own, it costs extra.

It's been said before, but nobody wants to listen.... The United States is falling behind in educating their children. It's going to hit us hard, we experience it now in fact. Call tech support for some electronic gizmo you bought, chances are you are going to talk to someone with an Indian accent. Why? Because it is cheaper for these companies to route your call all the way to India or some other country, some other country where those technically literate are willing to answer these calls for less, because Americans with the training required to do this job wouldn't be caught dead answering a fucking phone and getting bitched at.