Dear Dr. Laura,

I love your show, have listened since 1999 and am a current subscriber to your Dr. Laura Family Premium membership and listen to your podcasts daily. This is in response to your recent comments regarding public schools.

I am an administrator in a public school in a small town in Montana. We have approximately 315 students in our school district, grades K-12. I do see- and agree with- most of your beliefs about public schools and I do think that the banning of "balls" on the playground in some school in Washington is a bit ridiculous. This is extreme, I know. The real problem is violent children on the playground and these children should consistently be disciplined for bad behavior. Private schools- or homeschooling- is not totally the answer. The problem is children- of all genders, ethnicity, races and economic backgrounds- come to school and exhibit their anger and aggression of the downfalls of their family deficiencies onto other children. These are not accidents or "boo-boos"- nothing a bandaid will solve. These are deliberate acts of aggression and shortcomings! At this point, I see- on a daily basis- major family dysfunction. Most schools- private, public or home- lack a real plan of expectation and discipline. And if a parent rejects discipline, detention, etc. we cannot even carry out the consequence. So this is a societal/parenting problem which, I know, you advocate for a change.

As far as the product/outcome of education and graduation reading/math rates I want to share my experience. The No Child Left Behind Act has mandated any school that receives federal funding could be private, public, charter and some homeschooling programs are mandated to adopt and implement curriculum according to Common Core by 2014. We implemented the math common core this year and I am pleasantly surprised. I was skeptical but have found a wonderland of analytical thinking and philosophy! It was created by educators and contains a variety of choices for school districts and- unbelievably- contains lots of choices within the district. We do not have the data yet to assess the outcome of this change but I do believe that we WILL see higher scores, better students, more competent individuals! Even amongst the controversy.

The bottom line is, the family unit- across all economic and religious background- is broken. Many of our "problem children" have families who could EASILY homeschool or afford private school. No help with homework, even. Please do not blame the schools no matter what they may be when nothing is efficient without parental cooperation and family health. It's not OUR fault! We go into this profession most of us with the love of children. And those who don't have a pool of scrutiny. It's time for the parents to educate themselves on HOW TO BE PARENTS. I wish Parenting Classes were MANDATORY in ALL educational curriculum. All things depend upon each other. Thank you for everything!

Miranda