Well, there are two things here. First, as Neil Postman explores, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, in the 1984 vs. Brave New Worlds discussion, rather than a society where the hegemony controls the populace by limiting information (1984), we live in a society where there is such a glut of information that there is no way to discern the figure from the ground (BNW). We are not controlled by overloading us with fear (1984) but rather by overwhelming us with pleasure, aka 1000 channels and nothing to watch (BNW). Secondly, a recent report demonstrated that humans are poor judges of intelligence that is greater than their own. This is an inherent flaw of democracy as we are not capable, as a group, of picking the smartest or most capable candidates. To see this report search David Dunning from Cornell University.

As a teacher in New York state, I can tell you that the Union does not a cut at all. I pay my union dues myself. What European schools do not do is provide a fraction of the special education services that American Schools provide. If you take out Special education costs the per student dollar amount drops precipitously. They also do not provide free lunch and breakfast or in many countries subsidies meals AT ALL. Thirdly, and in my district this is huge, the cost of transportation is ridiculous. We are a rural district with approximately 110 kids per grade but over 300 square miles from which to bus them. New York state just passed a 2% property tax cap which prevents school budgets from going up regardless of whether diesel or gas prices (bus fuel) or heating oil goes up. Moryath is right. If people want a first rate education for their kids they need to be willing to pay for it.

There are a couple of things. First of all you need to get in to MIT. The hard part is admissions. I am not trying to be all critical but there are a lot of C programmers in High School (I teach High School) or kids who are learning how to do all kinds of other cool stuff, but you also have to have grades and SAT scores. If you get in most private colleges of that calibre are going to work with you to get you there. Secondly, there are some companies who will hire you because you have a degree at MIT and others that don't care. But venture capitalists will look at the MIT degree and a good idea and write you a blank check. . . just food for thought