If I could donate you all my karma, I would... We need more people like you and less of the zealots on all sides of the fence...

This is what the last "great" deed of humanity will be once we decimate the food chain and our food sources wither away... I, for one, give the lobster species a honorary status of Nostradamus with pincers.

That is exactly what I did. All went to charity not only for the reasons stated above but also because I had a really bad experience with THQ support...

...because (according to what I was told when I contacted Nintendo HQ regarding a research project that greatly benefited from using Wiimotes) they were not the ones who invented Wiimotes but rather licensed them from another manufacturer (as was the case with apparently a number of other controllers). I expect them to simply forward this inquiry to the company they licensed Wiimotes from and by doing so wash their hands clean in no time.

Likewise, you fail to combine preexisting loans that have to be paid out for past wars/military missions. I hope you'll agree diverting from the main point quickly becomes a statistical crapshoot. How much is unemployment worth to you, or outsourcing for that matter, both of which are arguably directly related to education? I agree with you that statistics can be easily massaged to fit anyone's needs. Like like Benjamin Disraeli/Mark Twain said, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics :-)

Yet, the truth is while state schools do get sponsored through state budget, that support is quickly dwindling which in turn has resulted in prohibitively expensive higher education, which then in turn has limited a number of people who can get a decent education. It's a vicious circle in which everyone is getting frustrated. You are right in that state universities for instance get a good chunk of money. Yet, whereas they may have been funded 60-80% in the 90s, now a good chunk of them are below 30%, and it keeps getting worse. Look for instance at Virginia Tech (VA). It has had over $60 million in cuts from state funding just in last 3 years alone all the while cost of living/infrastructure maintenance kept going up...

This is not a flaw of the education but rather a direct result of politicians meddling with things they know nothing about for the purpose of personal gain. Everyone knows education is the big ticket item that is close to the hearts of a largest contingent of voters (parents). We have idiots who want to use education as their "publicity stunt." Basically, they push a poorly designed law because they have the power to do so and then use that to gloat at then next election how they've done something profound for "the nation." What they fail to do, however, is support such a law with adequate funding. It is simple folks, if you want a person do more things, eventually they'll have so much on their plate that everything they do will have to end-up being half-baked. This is not because they are poor teachers but rather because they are overstretched by the growing pile of new laws while their funding is being continually cut (thus making hiring of new staff who could help in the process of coping with this virtually impossible). So, what actually happens as a result of this kind of behavior is that there is a growing pile of poorly designed rules/regulations/laws that educators then have to deal with, that they do not have time to do anything other than stupidly designed tests, including recognizing advanced children and giving them a chance to truly shine.

So, if you think this is a problem (I certainly do), I would say go to your local congressman and/or representative and tell them to put their dollars where their mouths are and to back off from education agenda with stupid laws without consulting those who are actually supposed to enact those laws. Did you know that in US annual education budget is one twentieth of the military budget and one third of government operations, making it basically the smallest piece of the pie? (see following chart -- yes, it's that little tiny, barely visible chunk). Now ask yourself how many kids are enrolled in education every year vs. how many soldiers/personnel we have in military...