Nationalization seems to be one of the hottest topics in America today. Nationalized this, nationalized that· nationalized health care being the most widely discussed at the moment with the proposed Patients' Bill of Rights presently being argued in Congress. Upon discussing this and other similar movements, people seem to be disregarding the most prominent national government program currently provided: nationalized - or public - education.

Public education is of high quality in some places, mediocre in others, terrible everywhere else. In inner cities - arguably the place where education should be of a higher priority than anywhere else in the country - public schools tend to be the worst.