Well, my car dealer tried to pull a fast one....I wasn't looking for a new car - I still have 10 months left on my lease, but they called me in, said they'd make a good deal to get me in a new car. Fine, I'll always listen. First thing I told them was I was not interested in rolling over any amount of my old lease into a new lease...if they want to make me a deal, they'd have to take care of that. They said fine. So we made a deal.

I go in today, and I see they were only taking care of 3 months payments of what I have left on my current lease, and rolling over 6 months into the new one.

Well screw that.

I walked. So...no new car.

so if we are high on the list of money spent for each child but low on the list for the education they receive then it must or could be the teaching that is lax in the u.s.
or perhaps the people from other countries are smarter than we are.
walking around in walmart makes me think that may be the reason.

An unethical car salesman? Shocking!

dom. lease is always a bad deal in cars. no exceptions. and dealing with any kind of trade with a dealer you always get taken on both ends.

never lease a car, buy an annuity, or let someone else manage your money.

I like leasing a car, Ray. I can get more car for the buck, and I'm not a guy who wants to keep a car past 5 or 6 years anyway.

Ray, your rants should really be in it's own thread, but I will let you know that the cold data isn't entirely honest either.

For example, the US wants free college just like Europe, but what "they" don't tell you is that Europe has a very different education system than the US. They make their 6th graders take a test, and from that test, the children are split into college-track and non-college track. The fact of the matter is that they are going to spend less on education because they simply don't give each child an equal opportunity to bite from the pie. Of course their "average" grades are going be higher because they kick the dumb kids to the curb.

At the end of the day, the US has the world's best higher education institutions, in no small part due to the US style of education. While it's not perfect, at least your 10 year old child isn't going to lose her entire future because she had a sinus infection on test day.

You might be overestimating the influence of unions these days, especially teacher unions.

Ray,

I recommend Jonathan Kozal's Savage Inequalities to anyone and everyone for a look at problems with our public schools.

Chicago teachers union absolutely runs the city.

Probably not a bad thing then.

BTW, only stayed one night in Oak Park. Had to fly back to Providence to attend a wedding. I need to spend more time in and around Chicago.

cliff notes..

we spend a ton on education and it isnt coming back

the other major players in the world have passed us in the last few decades.

it isnt that we need more money sunk in.

my solution. pay the good teachers more and fire the bad ones. just like in business.

I'm on ray's side here. But before you fire the teachers, you need to fire 90-95% of the administrators and not replace them. Unless you've worked in public education in the last 20-30 years, you have no idea how many people it takes to push paper.

Not unless you call bankrupting the city a bad thing.

I am no expert from what I have heard about charter schools sound very promising. Anything that gets out from under government bureaucracy usually works better.

The heat seems to be getting to everyone around here.

When does the fall thread start?

Should start with NFL opener, can't believe football is so close!

When I say so.

I thought it was up to rayz

I'm the same way, except I tend to not keep cars longer than 2-3 years, but a lease won't work for me because of how much I drive; you owe so much more if you drive over 12,000 miles a years. Even when my commute was only a couple miles I racked up the miles driving to visit family around the PNW. Now I'm in a satellite office and drive 180 RT 4-5 times a month, so there's no way a lease would work. Really wish they would.

I enjoy it when John's doppelganger punches out the competition.

Everything is going to be alright:

My doppelganger:

I do take suggestions, of course; however, I prefer to wait until the appointed time. And although I hate to see summer end, it feels like it's over when I return to work.

"Up your nose with a rubber hose."

john has or was always a tyrant and we have no control over when he determines we deserve the new quarterly thread. all we can do is beg to our leader and hope he takes enough pity on us to respond favorably.