I guess what I was getting at is that exit poll discrepancies can suggest where there MAY be a problem, but they are not a reliable indicator that there IS a problem. They are not infallible for a variety of reasons, lying just being the first one I thought of.

Sure they know, but will they be honest about it? One factor in 2008 exit polling was that a lot of people didn't want to admit to having voted against Obama. One reason was that anyone with anything against him was cast as a racist, and people didn't want to be seen as such. Personally, I've never been exit polled, but I would lie my ass off. My district is just about politically homogeneous, and I'd just rather not declare in possible earshot of my neighbors that I'd voted against them. There's a name for these tendencies for people to lie in exit polls http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shy_Tory_Factor

Who complains about hardware patents?

They're already regulated under HIPAA, and doubtless other regulations as well.

Ahhh... I had no idea I was so rebellious! Thanks

Since when is the system builder's license new? Am I missing something, because I could swear I have two of these (XP and 7)? They're usually about half the price of the full retail.

Plenty of charter and private schools provide better education at the same class sizes and half the cost of public schools.

I think one component of that is that students whose families just want to dump them into a free day care wind up in public school, and families who are engaged in the student's education try to get them out of public school. These play a role in the educational outcomes, but there's still no good reason that the lesser option should cost so much more.

And as for the "poor teachers" spiel, save it. It got old decades ago. There aren't a lot of 4 year programs you can walk out of starting at 30k/year with full state benefits and working 9 months out of the year. A friend's sister just retired from public teaching making 6 figures, and now has a pension in the mid-80's. Yeah, when they work they do work hard, it's not an easy job (if they're any good at it - I'm sure it's a cake walk if you don't really care), but they aren't on food stamps.

You mean it might not be best to subordinate independent analysis to broad stroked prescribed remedies? Hmm. I'll have to look for someone who's thought about that for a minute.