I think one of the most important takeaways from this article is that you can fix this problem, for your own family, now. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 US st

I think one of the most important takeaways from this article is that you can fix this problem, for your own family, now. Homeschooling is legal in all 50 US states and in a number of other countries [1] - Gray mentions it in the article as an alternative. It works, and it's not as impossible as you likely think. Historically, homeschooling is probably the most common form of education - the modern style of compulsory, state-run education traces back to the Prussian education system of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Anecdotally, I can attest to its strength: I'm a second-generation homeschooled student, currently pursuing a BS in Computer Science. I graduated with a 3.95 GPA, got a 96th percentile SAT score, and made it to the top level (Finalist) of the National Merit Scholarship program. I'm using a scholarship I got because of that to go through school. Without homeschooling, I doubt I would have got into computers and programming. I had the freedom and the time to pursue what I wanted to do - it didn't feel like school, because it wasn't, but it was just as, perhaps more, important than my standard academics. I started teaching myself programming when I was 12, essentially on my own. I started by just creating games, but eventually got bored of that and moved into programming more general-purpose stuff. I basically taught myself, with oversight to make sure I was actually doing it, through the middle school - high school level. The oldest of my brothers will also be graduating soon. He's totally different from me - loves the outdoors and wants to go into smoke-jumping. He dislikes academics, book-learning, and the technical side of computers, for the most part. Certainly doesn't pursue those things for fun. He was 86th percentile on his SATs. We were both (along with our six other younger siblings) taught by our mom, who has very little education beyond a high school diploma (don't get me wrong - she's very smart, just not academically well-credentialed). She taught us alone, while living in a remote part of a remote state. Our social interaction was almost entirely in the church or the occasional homeschooling group. I'm a bit introverted, but my brother is an extrovert, and as socially well-adjusted as they come. Academically, we're both well prepared for life. I know anecdotes aren't data, but I'm simply trying to make the point that it is reasonable and effective to teach your children at home. It doesn't take a college degree, teacher training, or a state program (our homeschool was entirely private). It takes love and hard work - but it provides a safe environment, cultures a love of learning, and gives academic excellence: all tasks that the public schools have proven themselves incapable of in most cases. [1]: For more info on the legality of homeschooling, see http://hslda.com http://hslda.com