Traditionally thought of as a venue for undergraduate and graduate students to pursue a degree-or for established professionals to enrich their careers-online schools are touted for their convenience, accessibility and cost-savings for busy adults. Yet our public schools keep children locked up for 12 years, yet can barely teach them to read. Public school rankings rely heavily on demographics and standardized tests. Throwing more hundreds of billions of tax dollars at these schools is a complete waste of time and a criminal waste of precious resources, including our children’s minds and future.

Frankly, we think that blaming your child’s public school if your child is not achieving academically is a lot like blaming your gym if you’re out of shape. Yet, that is what we see month after month at school board meetings and in numberless encounters between parents and teachers.

The study found that in every subject and grade level of the ITBS battery of tests, home-schooled students scored significantly higher than public and private school students. I’ve long been concerned about the way that school systems rely heavily on local property taxes, shortchanging students in low-income areas and condemning communities caught in a spiral of decreasing property values and declining schools.

Education in Argentina is a responsibility shared by the national government, the provinces and federal district and private institutions, though basic guidelines have historically been set by the Ministry of Education. Likewise, it is what you and your child do with your public school that will determine his or her educational outcomes.

The private schools have a cutting edge over other schools as their students are well placed in colleges and universities. The schools are putting so much emphasis on these tests that some kids are stressed out about it. I know a child that was so stressed about it that he cheated on the test in second grade.