We'll start with a Hill article, and this is the headline: Public schools in a bind amid enrollment declines.
It says that K through 12 enrollment is on the decline between a combination of dropping birth rates and more school choice options, putting schools in a bind.
It says the public school system is expected to see a drop of millions of students over the next five years, a hit that will affect schools financially and potentially lead to the closure of more districts.
Ways to combat this phenomenon are limited, as experts say schools will have to look at scaling down operations or competing with other educational institutions.
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And let's take a look at the poll results that I mentioned.
Take a look at Americans who give public schools an A or a B grade.
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So when asked about their local schools, they rate those as 43%.
Now, it was in 2013 that that number went to its highest level, which was 53% for their local schools.
When asked about public schools nationally, how they would grade those, only 13% gave a grade of an A or a B, and that is the lowest number since the poll's history.
Another question they asked was about public funding for private or religious schools.
So here's what the question was: They said, if you were offered public funds to cover at least a portion of the cost to send your child to a private or religious school instead, do you think you would keep them in public school or would send them to a private or religious schools?
So overall, the number said 59% that they would send to private or a religious school if part of that, at least part of that money was paid for by the government.
Let's see broken down by party and its independents that were the highest number.
And we'll start with James, who's a Republican in Kataning, Pennsylvania.
Good morning, James.
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Yes.
I just don't have much faith in the public schools or very little.
It seems that my life is an example of public schools.
There's no accountability.
Children are left on their own.
I mean, the schools need parents to be involved.
And I never had that.
And, well, that's all I'm going to say.
But we need the alternative of vouchers or people being able to choose their schools because there's no competition to a huge degree if you're at a bad school.
The Texas Tribune says that Texas will require public school classrooms to display Ten Commandments under a bill signed by the governor.
It says that Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10, even though a similar Louisiana law was deemed unconstitutional.
Supporters say Christianity is core to U.S. history.
United States Bias00:02:40
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And here is Drew in Chicago, Illinois, Independent.
Hi, Drew.
Hi.
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can.
Right.
So about the public schools, like, well, I, well, I myself am a student and I go to a public school in Chicago.
And, like, I mean, just what I've noticed is, like, I mean, in relation to, like, core subjects like math and reading and science and stuff like that, usually it's okay in relation to just, like, it's not, I don't know.
The big problem that I really see is in the social sciences, where for me personally, it's like a lot of the time it seems like it's just extremely biased against the United States.
It seems like there's constantly this drive to make people kind of hate ourselves and to kind of villainize ourselves.
So give me an example of something you might have studied that is geared towards making Americans feel bad about themselves.
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Well, the biggest thing would actually be the United States history course that I had, where the main source of information was actually this book by Howard Zinn called A People's History of the United States.
And the entire idea was that, well, that the United States has been extremely, I will just evil, I guess, or corrupt in the way that it's worked and that the whole system is bad.
And kind of the whole idea about slave-owning people creating the country and all this stuff and about how one of the ideas was that in World War II, we were no better than the Nazis.
And I mean, that's just obviously not true.
I mean, I don't really see how that's something that is even acceptable to be taught.
But it's just this constant idea that somehow we're supposed to not think that we're great.
Sources Limiting Thinking00:00:45
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And I mean, I just don't think that that's true at all.
And do you feel that you can speak up in class, Drew?