Well, yeah, I knew about NCLB and the funding. Since my school didn't do that I'm not as aware of how it worked, but it seems to be common sense. You can pay an art teacher, or you can by new math textbooks. Or you can use the time to have students study something that will be beneficial in the workforce, like a second language or business. We were taught that in the business world, no one cares if you're good at football or if you can play the violin, unless you're trying to impress potential customers/business allies.

Again, we didn't have that stuff, so maybe it was a lot of fun. But sometimes you've got to make tradeoffs. I don't regret my education, and while obviously not everyone wants to have the same education, I personally would recommend my education to someone else, even the public schools.