Debate me about anything you disagree with Ron Paul on: foreign policy, economy, Iraq/Iran, etc

Yes, this debate is on this plan in particular. Ron Paul is trying to counter the stupifying of America by the Dept of Edu with his education agenda. The federal gov has no business controlling how we are educated. The more they have to control, the more there's a potential for manipulation that serves private interests, such as how money is distributed within and from the Dept of Edu. The Dept of Edu is a giant bureaucracy that just wastes a lot of tax dollars. This is a good example of why the founders of this country subscribed to the philosophy of a limited government. Look at the current condition of public schools in this country and tell me they're in good shape. They are a shining example of a good argument against socialism. When governments socialize things such as education, the overall quality goes down. Name some examples of countries around the world that have been socialist for a few decades and tell me how well their government has taken care of everything. You'll find things look pretty run-down in such places. Compare this with the condition of schools in America today. Sure, some of them may have real nice football fields and campuses, but they don't have enough money to maintain music or physical education programs, or to give teachers the pay they deserve. Our quality of education has suffered dearly because of this. In Indiana, the schools have so little money that parents can't keep the books that they buy their kids at the beginning of each year. By standardizing tests, the government forces the quality of our education down further. When students are held to a certain standard while the quality of our education is slipping, overall test scores begin to decline, and the standard has to be dropped. This is a slippery slope that is perpetuated by the government, and is responsible for the fact that our education system is inferior to that of so many foreign countries, like in Europe and Japan. By giving parents the option and incentive to home school, you thereby end the gov monopoly on education. Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Dept of Edu so that the billions of tax dollars that get dumped in to it can instead stay with the people and they can have the say over how their children get raised. These problems didn't exist until the Dept of Edu was installed and sucked all of the money out of education. I have known people that homeschooling didn't work well at all for. One person in particular was very respectable and intelligent, but had all of the social skills of a badger. I tried homeschooling for a semester when I got kicked out of high school and it didn't work for me. The issue is, however, that public school wasn't working for me either. I had problems at home. So did the kid whose parents chose not to socialize him, which ultimately led to his death. Point being, the problem lies with the people, not with the government. Further more, why shouldn't those who have been home schooled have the same chances someone of getting into college who's gone to public school as long as they meet or exceed the level of education the college requires them to have? I went to public school, never earned a single high school credit, was suspended the second week of my sophomore year, and achieved a 4.0 GPA my first year of college six years later. Granted, I would've been better prepared for college if I had stayed in school, but I was kicked out for telling some kid that I was going to fight him. Though I was being a stupid sixteen year old, my life was ruined for several years after the incident. I had several thousand dollars to pay in legal and counseling fees, as well as probation for nearly two years all over an incident which has never been anything out of the ordinary for children to be involved with in human history. I was simply a kid being a kid and the government got involved and made it one of the most troubling times in my life. See what government in schools can get you? The public school system is broken also because of the fact that you have school counselors diagnosing students with medical / mental conditions though they've never had any formal medical education. If a student is a little high strung, or actually has a problem such as ADHD, he or she is assessed and given drugs to control the symptoms regardless of what is truly causing the problem. Tell me that the drug lobby doesn't dump any dollars into the department of edu to maintain this problem.