Reply #83: Other:

[LWolf]

A combination of factors, the weightiest being the use and abuse of the public education system as a tool of political manipulation and mass propaganda supporters.

When the political authoritarian model we are currently running is allowed to run amock, which it has been under NCLB and the previous state versions of the "standards and accountability movement," generations of future voters are conditioned not to think or act independently. That's a dangerous situation for a representative democracy. Add the consolidation of the msm in the hands of a few powerful owners, and the situation becomes more dire.

When public education can be the scapegoat, and the propaganda machine can encourage the public to consider the system incompetent, corrupt, etc. (while political maneuverings guarantee a broken system that CAN'T heal itself,) then politicians never have to confront the real reasons for educational failure, the number one being poverty. They can continue to allow the further division of classes, blaming the education system instead of themselves.

There are many, many problems within the system I'd like to address. All teachers would. Here's a link to a recent thread where many of those ideas are shared:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5435933

Meanwhile, though, you asked what the biggest problem is, and I told you. It's not a problem "in education." It's a political and cultural problem.