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Healthcare, Education: Two Reasons to Worry About America's Future

I was born in Moscow, Soviet Union.

I went thru Soviet public school system in the post-Stalin times. It was very good. We did not have anything free (no books, no food, no buses to schools, no summer schools, etc., our parents had to pay for it!) except free & good education. Most of our teachers were highly educated and dedicated to their jobs, otherwise, they were just fired (that meant the end of your career for life). One more thing, our teachers did not have unions and were paid close to nothing.

90% of our high school pupils went to and graduated from universities (not going so meant being drafted to the army - a very strong incentive to graduate).

This how the post-WWII Soviets became a superpower. Later, without a dictatorship and with limited democracy and unions, the entire system fell apart.

The bottom line: one can have a very good education system without large sums of money spent/wasted. Again, trust me. I know what I am talking about. I went thru Soviet education system, and ended with PhD from MIT.