The surest way to get the best and brightest is to give each and every child the chance to contribute to this country to the best of their ability.
Does that 'giving' involve theft from other children? Or are you simply talking about ensuring no child is PREVENTED from contributing?
If it's the former, you can take your failed Marxist nonsense and stick it.
If it's the latter, please point to an example of such prevention. I may very well agree with you, but you'll need to be specific.
There are many, I would venture to guess over half, of high schools in this country where a really bright boy or girl will get almost enough education and get almost enough guidance counselling to almost make it into a state college where they will have almost reached their potential. This isn't Marxist nonsense, this is a system keeping itself alive. I believe from the looks of things we are definitely a failing system.
I think one issue with understanding the challenges many schools face is so much of what students have at better schools is taken for granted. Things like, "Well of course there is a guidance counselor in the school." Well there might be one in name, and only one, but that person is dealing with behavioral problems all day and absolutely nothing is available as far as college guidance. There is that and so much more.
Is that another long winded way of saying you support theft? From those according to their ability to those according to their needs? That it?
More guidance counseling? Really? Amazing how we thrived as a country without guidance counselors...
Bottom line, education is a state issue. There is nothing in Constitution allowing the Federal government to meddling in education. So let's end the DOE now and the ridiculous programs like common core. It's no coincidence that as the Feds have poured more and more money into education, the results have worsened.
Remember when it was "class size" that was the reason for our failing education system? Well, we cut class sizes in half. We now spend more per public than in just about every country...and the results are worse. Proof positive central planning does not work.
If you really want to see education improve at the state level, introduce CHOICE. When government runs schools...and I mean RUNS them, from what's in the text books to how many tater tots are served at lunch, consumers for affordable education have no choice. A monopoly therefore exists and as we know when customers have no choice to take their money elsewhere, there is ZERO incentive on the part of the provider to meet those customers expectations, much less exceed them.
Carolyn Lochhead said it best:
"Public educators, like Soviet farmers, lack any incentive to produce results, innovate, to be efficient, to make the kinds of of difficult changes that private firms operating in a competitive market must make to survive."