budget deficits affecting my state big time.
Personally felt so far: Funding for advanced (AP, IB) public school courses is being slashed suggesting Florida no longer wants to help fund opportunities for intelligent and motivated children to get a higher level of pre-college education? Let's all just get a crappy public education with our tax dollars. Now that makes perfect sense in a socialist society where we all need to be equally average.

Given that Finnish youth in their socialist society outscore the rest o the world in skills testing, this theory is leaky to say the least. But further weakening our public schools is ludicrous as a solution to the dumbing of America. I guess I was lucky to go to Iowa public schools where the people are wise enough to invest in educationn especially since it helped me get a dual PhD.

wow, I didn't know that d, thanks-are there other examples of countries as large as ours that have great socialist education systems? I wonder if Finland is an aberation due to smallness, cohesiveness, and other cultural factors. I still think Americans with good public/private education are leading the world in innovation, creativity, technological advancement, but maybe it's due in part to some great American businesses?

Off topic:
Does the number(2012) in your screenname relate to the theory of the end of the world in 2012?
Or is the number representative of something else?

Does the number(2012) in your screenname relate to the theory of the end of the world in 2012?

The opposite, maybe? I, like the futurist Ray Kurzweil, and others, believe we're going exponential in our growth and potential, so I'm very optimistic! 2012, then, the approximate end of the mayan calender recordings, could be seen as the tipping point, but it's just a dream/idea/fantasy at this point! We will know in the fullness of time....