Education System (Free Write)

Recently, I have been looking for a school for my daughter and let me say I am truly amazed at the sad state of the public education system in Arizona. It all began by doing some research of the west valley public schools near my home. I was surprised at their poor test scores, however being the opened minded individual I know that test scores do not necessarily paint the full picture; so I began to tour a lot of these facilities, and spoke with many of the administrators. That experience was so bad that I immediately contacted my state representative. After a conversation with him I realized that the best option for our family was to begin to look at charter schools and private schools for my daughter. Maybe I am an idealist but I still want to believe that we can make our public schools work for every family. With recent talks about cuts to education I am left wondering, what is left to cut? Many of the school districts around me already began to let teachers go and most of the text and materials used in these classes are sadly outdated. I did more research and found that this is not just the west valley but all across Arizona our children are being let down by a broken school system. Please know that this is not a rant against teachers, I have friends that teach and some of you I know are doing the Teach for America program, and I know that the overwhelming majority of our educators have their hearts in the right place and take their jobs very seriously. However, as a father to an amazingly smart little girl I am truly concerned by this issue.