School Daze?

 Well, it looks like it's back to school for most our kids and grandkids. My how the times have changed. Used to, bout the only things parents had to worry about was did Johnny remember to take his homeowrk and what he'd try to swap his lunch for.
 Now parents have to worry about what is being taught to Johnny. Things like having to read books like, I Have Two Mommies, Revisionist History that rewrites the history of our country so they grow up ashamed of our country instead of being proud to be an American, not being allowed to pray at school functions,and having to witness the implosion of our educational system in general.
  For the most part the public school system is a dismal failure. The Federal government thinks the solution is, as always, toss a  lot of money at it and it will be all better. Seems like the more money the government tosses, the worse it gets. One example: English as a second language. It was originally designed to fast track Hispanics into being able to function in an English based educational system, but along the way it was corrupted and now classes are being taught in Spanish and the Hispanics are being left behind or just passed along like a can being kicked down the road. Is it any wonder that the drop out rate for them is higher than nearly all the other groups?
 I do have some ideas that might help improve the situation. They might not work but what we got now isn't so what's the harm in talking bout them and see who thinks what..
 First and foremost, do away with the Dept. of Education and return authority to the individual states where it rightfully belongs. If you disagree with that, can you point me to the Article and Section of the Constitution that specifically deals with education? And another point, the Federal government is so ponderous and incompetent, it can't even run a railroad or a postal system and you want to trust our childrens' future with it?
Second, let parents shop around for a charter school or private school of their choosing. Competition among them will breed better choices. Look at the successes with voucher systems.Think that's a bad idea, then how have private colleges lasted for so long? Anyone ever tell you which college your children must attend? Folks it's our money and investment.
 Next, quit forcing school districts to dumb down classes so no one will fail. It does the kids more harm to pass them because of maybe scarring them emotionally than to have them repeat a grade so they will have a more solid foundation. If we did that more often, we would have less need for those teachers and could retarget those resources to children with special needs such as dyslexia and special education..
Then, we need to reinstill a sense of order and discipline in the classroom. Schools should not keep kids  that constantly disrupt the class. If they mess up, suspend them; if they mess up bad, expel them. In the words of an instructor, some times you have to lose a toe to save the foot.
   Not sure how this last point is gonna come across, but I'm gonna let it fly and y'all can punch holes in it and and me for that matter. Okay, do away with teacher unions. Let's be honest here just how much good do they do for the kids? yall say it gives them protection from being fired without cause, but I think if you don't have to worry about your job.. just how good are you going to be willing to do it. I do believe in merit based pay. We need good teachers and I think by weeding out the incompetent and the indifferent we can vastly improve the system as a whole. The trick will be how to  judge performance. Along this point a teacher friend gave me this: the administration system is over loaded and top heavy. The real cutting when times get hard should be in admin, not teachers.
Well, now yall have heard me and my ideas. I'd love to hear y'alls.  It's too important not to have an opinion or an  idea.