The parent said that crime was lower. The parent was wrong.

You're a little bit ill informed my friend.

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Australia/United-States/Crime

http://io9.com/5933173/three-strange-theories-about-why-americas-crime-rate-is-so-low

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/08/crime-in-europe-and-the-u-s.html

Where exactly DO babies come from?

I think he meant public "owned" as opposed to public place. The school is required by law to know the whereabouts of minors in their care the exact same way parents are. Imagine needing to know where several thousands kids are in a decent sized high school? This isn't about privacy, that is a stupid argument. Everyone in that school knows where she either is, or supposed to be, without that badge. She is also a minor, and like it or not she does not have any expectation of privacy during normal school functions such as classes. I am all about protecting private things that are supposed to be private. She does not have a right to be anonymous in going to and from class.

Daddy's money? You make a lot of assumptions, and all of them are wrong.

Ford was an anti-semite. It is perfectly acceptable to dislike him on that regard, and I would actually encourage it. That said, he was also right. By the way your economic fate is not set in anything other than your mind and what you're capable of.

I can't bear to think about how horrible your world must be to live in. The outcome of ones life is by-and-large a result of the choices one makes. If you want to double your chance of success you have to double your rate of failure. To quote someone who might know about things like this.... "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're right." --Henry Ford

Is a computer psychiatrist .... let's call him Marvin!

I addressed this above. I'll do it again since I'm already here. A teachers contract is a contract for a number of instructional days plus prof. development etc. Those days are the days that the pay is based on. Anything outside of those contractually obligated days (or hours during a day) is gratis. Think about those teachers manning the football games. Yep.... they have to be there, and no they aren't paid. As for you claim of accuracy you are spot off. Wrong. I taught for ten years before going back into the private sector (I was an award winning teacher by the way). My terms are entirely accurate, and you should probably learn a little about what you're talking about before painting with such a broad brush. There might be some districts that do things a little differently, but by and large you are mind boggingly wrong.

Nope. Teachers are paid by the school day. No students. No pay. I exclude benefit days such as sick days. A teachers contract calls for a set number of days and pay is based on those contractual teaching days.

A three month vacation? Pardon me but uhmmmmm no. What you get as a teacher is a three month layoff without pay. Yes they might receive paychecks but that is money withheld from their "in-session" checks. As for working during the summer, yes teachers do. Even if it's two weeks it's still two weeks without pay.

Read Ed Buggs comment. http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3207823&cid=41763311 He's right.

Online courses may work for a few people, but after having tought high school for more than a few years I can promise you they will not work for the majority. Teaching is essentially a controlled feedback loop (*Yes I understand it isn't ONLY a feedback loop) , and it is the back and forth (continuous) feedback that builds critical thinking skills, and enhances the learning for most people. Online videos can not see the face of a lost student, can't detect someone that is Googling an answer for each question, or in any other way rephrase the question.

should read

FTFY... it will never be my reality.

I'd mod you up just for recognizing the sig! It's the C64 btw. I'm actually pro-immigration myself, I probably just critical of the financial math for illegal immigrants.