Ah, true. I hear a lot of North American cities have really lousy public transportation, and I often forget that because I'm lucky enougth to live in a city with a really comprehensive one. And if I can't afford a bus pass for whatever reason, I can get to most places I need to go by just walking for an hour or so, which I don't mind doing so long as I'm feeling healthy and the weather's decent.
And I can definitely see how cars would be handy in suburban and rural areas.
Though I still contest that most working Americans have two cars. A good percentage, perhaps, and enough to be worthy of note, but I doubt that figure is over 50%. And if it is, by some chance, I think it would, for the most part, be another example of people trying to live outside their means.
As for the private versus public education thing, yeah, a lot of funding does get seriously mismanaged in public schools. Just referencing the school I went to, most text books were around 30 years old, if not older, and building was in need or repairs in many places... but by damn, the football players had shiny new uniforms! Some of that came out of the student fees we all had to pay, but there was some dropping of the financial ball all around, and we were still one of the best schools in the city. I think part of the reason for higher educational standards in private schools stems from the fact that they can often offer higher teacher salaries to attract better teachers, and will often also have a much closer student-to-teacher ratio.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 09:50 am (UTC)And I can definitely see how cars would be handy in suburban and rural areas.
Though I still contest that most working Americans have two cars. A good percentage, perhaps, and enough to be worthy of note, but I doubt that figure is over 50%. And if it is, by some chance, I think it would, for the most part, be another example of people trying to live outside their means.
As for the private versus public education thing, yeah, a lot of funding does get seriously mismanaged in public schools. Just referencing the school I went to, most text books were around 30 years old, if not older, and building was in need or repairs in many places... but by damn, the football players had shiny new uniforms! Some of that came out of the student fees we all had to pay, but there was some dropping of the financial ball all around, and we were still one of the best schools in the city. I think part of the reason for higher educational standards in private schools stems from the fact that they can often offer higher teacher salaries to attract better teachers, and will often also have a much closer student-to-teacher ratio.