[speaker001:] [Clicking].
[speaker002:] [Music] [TV] Uh, well, h-, having sort of the reason we're going through the school system I seem to be younger than most people who, who talk on this thing. I'm, I'm just graduating col-, graduating from college. Uh, I didn't really perceive much of a, of a problem with the school system. However, when you compare it to school systems like they have in Japan and ad-, you can compare just about everyth-, thing to Japan [need to separate every th] and we look like wh-, we don't have anything. Uh, it seems to be not difficult enough for students. Not challenging enough. And just not generally competitive enough. Uh, however, I, if it weren't for our needless, uh, [sigh] competition with Japan, I, I'd, I'd think that, that, the school systems, system works at a pretty good pace.
[speaker001:] I don't know. Uh, I haven't, it's been, uh, well seventy-nine since I was at school.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] At high school. And, uh, I've seen things change. I don't know if I've seen things change enough that I can actually, because I wasn't really like listening to the world go by back then so it's hard to compare. You know what I mean?
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] But, uh, it seems like when I li-, I lived in Chicago, I, I've lived down here. I hear the dropout rates from the schools,
[speaker002:] [Rustling].
[speaker001:] and I certainly see how much I pay in real estate taxes every year.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And I begin to wonder if I'm really getting my money's worth.
[speaker002:] Huh.
[speaker001:] I mean, I, I've seen so many different things. So, so many different bad reports coming out of the school system and I recognize that there are good schools out there. I mean, somebody's
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] getting, getting a good education because we,
[speaker002:] [Clicking].
[speaker001:] continue to employ people. But, uh, [swallowing] I don't, I don't understand the, uh, I don't understand, I guess, why the schools don-, seem to have such a high dropout rate in the big cities.
[speaker002:] Uh, well, I don't pretend to understand that either. Uh, but I'm not quite sure that it's the kind of thing that ought to be blamed on the schools. But then, again, I'm not quite sure where the blame ought to be put. Uh, because the, the dropout rate is, in those areas, w-, it's high in those areas where also there's poverty and, and crime. And they all seem to go together. And it seems like if you could eliminate one [sniffing] of, of the parts of that circle, whether, where you have the dropout rate and crime and, you know, general poverty kind of conditions, [sniffing] that things ought to get better. So, uh, a-, the other two a-, a-, they're all three social issues and could be addressed by the government in any ways [sniffing]. And clearly, to me, is a kind of government thing to, to fix but it's just like, I, I don't expect them to know which, which, which part is best to fix just like I don't know. It's, it's a complicated issue. I, I still don't think I would blame it directly on the school.
[speaker001:] I don't know if I blame it on the school. I think, I think I blame it, I think I blame it on a couple of different things. I think I blame it on the school system. Uh,
[speaker002:] Well, that's I meant when I said the school.
[speaker001:] Yeah. I don't blame it on the teachers in the school. I, although I think that, I do know for a fact that some of the teachers that I know personally get paid an awful lot more than, well, [throat clearing] they do quite well for themselves [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Huh. Well, that's odd because I don't think the teachers in my school district, uh, were well paid.
[speaker001:] No. Not all school districts are well paid. But there are some school districts out there that are very well paid. I mean I know one family that's got, they're both teachers, and they both have,
[speaker002:] [Rustling].
[speaker001:] like second jobs
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] that they work in the afternoons. They both work all summer full-time. And from their teaching job alone, they pull in forty grand each.
[speaker002:] Yeah. Well, it, it,
[speaker001:] I mean that family is making over a hundred grand. And I'm, I mean, okay, okay. Yes, I agree that teaching our kids is important.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] However, these people who only work eight hours day at it, from seven to three,
[speaker002:] [Noise].
[speaker001:] and they only work nine months a year and they get an awful lot of breaks in between and that's my tax dollars that I'm spending on that. And I don't even have kids [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] Yeah, [LAUGHTER] well that's true. But tha-, there's, you can always play games with, uh, talking about, whoa, look at this. My tax dollars are paying for this. This is wrong. But, when you're talk-, w-, w-, and there's really not much you can directly do about that. I think that, that if, if there is a problem with the school system, uh, from, it's been my perception that the school teachers and school officials are not that well, uh, paid. That perhaps that might be one area that, that could be improved. Uh, w-, you have other professional jobs and th-, this is a profession. And, as a matter of fact, it's a pretty big influence on, on [music] [TV],