I have a job because the public education system is broken. My adult students want to be successful, but the public schools did not give them that opportunity. Sure, many of them had to leave because they got pregnant, or had to start working, but the majority of students I've talked to said they weren't motivated and found school boring. These students are extremely smart and perhaps had undiagnosed learning disabilities or felt their teachers didn't care, which is a totally legitimate thought for a teenager with other things going on in his or her life.
The problem is not getting any better, and the standardized testing movement has tricked us into thinking our schools are improving. But when we compare American schools to those internationally, we are doing pretty terribly in the things that really matter: problem solving, inquiry, and written expression. The great Linda Darling-Hammond explains things eloquently and succinctly here. Watch it.
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