Public education isn't valued in a plutocracy. The plutocrats send their kids to private schools.

Oh...and for anyone who cares...here is a link to my second post on education. It says roughly what I say here...maybe with a little more depth...it is not prioritized the same way, but it is the essence of what I am trying to get at.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/norseman86/2009/09/edumacation-reform-part-ii.php

There is also the total Dumbing Down of our educational system and society as a whole. This being done in the name of safety for one. Chemistry set today are a joke. Kids are expected to just regurgitate what they hear instead of questioning and discovering on their own.

I have noticed this for a long time and it does dismay me.

I knew High School kids when I was young that built their own robots, radio equipment, did model rocketry...all sorts of things.

Now all I see is iPods and cell phones and laptops.

Pablum for the brain.

C

I saw this show and it was important and I thoroughly agree with your conclusions. I like your list and I especially like this sentence:

While I can see how having these three individuals working together and visiting schools can raise the profile of the issue, HOWEVER, the problems and solutions have been studied and discussed to DEATH!

Private schools are better than public schools in terms of some of the items on your list -- for example, the number of students per class.
However, unless a private school (particularly a boarding school) is either in the top or secondary tier in reputation, or has a comfortable level of scholarship endowment to ensure full enrollment, then staggering tuition/room and board costs have resulted in significantly decreased enrollment everywhere else. Decreased enrollment then causes a domino cascade of classroom problems that are similar and sometimes identical to those you cite:
A) most private schools are attempting to compensate for fewer American students by accepting: 1) more foreign students (especially affluent Chinese and Koreans); and, 2) students with severe learning or social behavior problems. When the ratio of a given student body becomes badly skewed -- when 55-65% of students are Asian or learning/behaviorally-challenged -- then classroom and standardized testing achievement across the board is lowered. Because small classes can't compensate for the facts that: 1) many Asian students are really smart but often arrive speaking barely a word of English; 2) students with severe learning disabilities need extra help outside the classroom that their parents may or may not be able to afford on top of tuition/room&board; and, 3) students with behavioral issues are frequently disruptive. When, in a class of ten students, six can't speak English, two can't keep up despite their best efforts and one is a budding sociopath, limited learning pertains.
B) Private schools in an enrollment/endowment squeeze try to cut operation costs by having fewer employees. Because they cannot cut the kitchen or maintenance staff without risk of parental complaints about blatant health and safety concerns, they reduce the number of faculty instead. Fewer teachers = degradation of classroom instruction for several reasons: 1) Teachers who once taught four or five sections -- of which two or more were repeats of the same subject, with two or three daytime periods to prepare -- are now expected to teach six sections, of which as many as five may be different subjects requiring nightly preparation. 2) Teachers may be required, at the 11th hour, to teach a subject in which they have no academic background: for example, a European history expert or an English teacher may be asked, a week before classes begin, to teach a section of Comparative Religion, etc..When sports, activity and dorm supervision are added to the faculty load -- additional obligations that also involve weekends -- then teachers are quickly exhausted, and run their classrooms for the rest of the year on adrenaline and inadequate preparation.
C) Private school parents should be concerned that these schools are particularly specious in hiring cheap rather than fully-credentialed, experienced and energetic teachers; they hire the young, fresh out of college without graduate degrees in their subjects; they also hire those who are burnt out but still need a job.
The bottom line is that unless a student can gain admission to one of the better private schools -- whether day or boarding -- a parent today might think twice before laying out fees that are equal to, and sometimes exceed, college costs.

Instill fear in the students. Empower teachers to maintain order and discipline in the classroom, backed up by stern principals and large, physically fit gym and shop teachers who have recently been in combat in the armed forces.

Fire all the non-teachers except a small office staff, nurse, janitors, and the lunch-room staff.

In other words, go back to the '50s.