This post is from from my other blog here

We're in the unique position of being able to compare, first-hand, the explicit differences between the way local private schools are run, and local public schools. There are obviously all kinds of differences based on simple economics, but the differences aren't narrowing, they're widening quickly.

Take the beginning of the year...LCPS elementary schools sort out the younger kids for more advanced math and reading based on teacher reviews and testing. This is a good thing; problem is, it'll take nearly 2 months to actually do this. In the meantime, based on personal in-class observation, those kids who are waiting to be challenged just get bored and restless, and quite literally waste an entire month of opportunities to learn. Contrast this to a local private school - the sorting of kids into appropriate study levels takes just a few days, getting the kids off and running right as September starts.

Another example of the growing disparity; in the past few years, LCPS elementary schools were able to provide children math books and lessons from advanced grades, if they evidently needed it. For example, a 2nd-grader could push ahead and use the 3rd grade math book. This practice has been stopped cold; evidently, the Middle Schools had some evidence that this practice led to too many kids entering 6th grade without proper grounding in the "fundamentals". The implication is that too many were being pushed ahead who either shouldn't have been, or the advanced in-class instruction simply wasn't properly moderated and reviewed. So this method of in-class challenge and advancement is no longer available in LCPS, while the local private schools are able to offer children precisely what they need....if it means a 3rd-grader taking 6th-grade math, so be it.

This, therefore, is what's becoming crystal clear to us...while no children are being left behind now, and everyone is assured a minimal, decent education - those who would be the world's intellectual, academic and scientific leaders are getting more and more disenfranchised - unless, of course, their parents are fortunate enough to take private action. This doesn't bode well for the US on the future world stage, at all.