"Americans love to talk the talk on education, but in the end we are narrow minded, stingy and lack foresight. We simply do not care all that much about educating our children."

Judging by the ascendance of the teabaggers, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin, the parents ain't too well ediacated themselves. And to make it worse, they "are proud of their ignorance."

I'd agree if schools actually educated children. I believe strongly in public schools, but there needs to be some decent leadership about what education is and what it's for. Like everything else, it's come to be defined as job preparation, and it acts to sort out children pretty much by class. You can't blame a lot of parents for being suspicious about what these tests that may fail their kids are really all about.