The Education Crisis and what's in it for you?

What I learned this week:
I spent 20 dollars on very bad films. The more I go to the movies or watch TV the more I realize how much better off I would be spending time doing something else, unless what I watch is on PBS. Okay I admit I am biased!

What I am grateful for:
When I got sick with a sore throat and a headache, I realized what herbs I needed to take to tackle it quickly. I am grateful I quickly healed!]

EDUCATION CRISIS. April 20th 2010 7pm Live on HoustonPBS
I really want to hear from you. Even if you don't live in Houston Texas, our whole nation is attempting to reform our urban public education system. Our society has changed drastically in the past 3 decades. Most educators, community and business leaders admit, we have to transform the system to better educate our youth for future needs. What are your suggestions?
According to a report from Children at Risk, in 2007 53.5% of children in Harris County public scho0ls were considered at risk of dropping out. Texas ranked 41st out of 50 states and the District of Columbia (the worse district in the country) in expenditure per students. Texas also has a higher average class size and average student to teacher ration than the national average.
The approach in Texas recently has been based on standardized, high stakes test based accountability. A recent study on the Education Policy Analysis Archives titled High Stakes Accountabilty and the Dropout Crisis states. "Disagreagtion of student scores by race does not lead to greater equity, but in fact puts our most vulnearble youth, the poor, the English lanuage leaners and African American and Latino children, at risk of being pushed out of their schools so the school rating can show "measurable improvement" High stakes, test based accountability leads not to equitable educational possibilities for youth, but to avoidable losses of these students from our schools. Each year, Texas public highschools lose at least 135,000 youth prior to graduation.
But what are the best accountability measures for our children? Should we have national standards of education? Can we just hold teachers accountable for what happens in the classroom, despite the fact, children are suffering from abuse, poverty, hunger, violence at home? Let us know what you think for the upcoming town forum on education on April 20th 2010 on HoustonPBS.