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One of the most important trends afoot right now is the move to privatize as many government services as possible. Billionaires like Bill Gates, along with hedge funds, are pushing an agenda of privatizing public schools, and funding a PR push in support of that cause with films like "Waiting for Superman" and the NBC "Education Nation" that included a panel with the title "Does Education Need a Katrina?".

Teachers, students and parents-one after the other - implored the Fond du Lac Board of Education to consider the impact of enacting a schedule change that would result in less contact time between staff and students before and after school.

"Pennsylvania has a larger percentage of high-performing charter schools than the national average, but it also has more underperforming ones. As a result, Pennsylvania charter students on average are lagging behind students in regular public schools."

Succeeding against all odds certainly describes Ana Ponce, chief executive officer of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, which runs five charter schools, the majority in the most crowded, impoverished and gang-ridden section of Los Angeles.

Critics of America's public schools always seem to start from the premise that the pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade public education system in this country is failing or in crisis. This crisis mentality is in stark contrast to years of survey research showing that Americans generally give high marks to their local schools. Phi Delta Kappa International and Gallup surveys have found that the populace holds their neighborhood schools in high regard; in fact, this year's survey found that "Americans, and parents in particular, evaluate their community schools more positively than in any year since" the survey started.

"In the charter-school sector, this arrangement is known as a "sweeps" contract because nearly all of a school's public dollars 2013 anywhere from 95 to 100 percent 2013 is "swept" into a charter-management company. The contracts are an example of how the charter schools sometimes cede control of public dollars to private companies that have no legal obligation to act in the best interests of the schools or taxpayers."