We continue to argue about who pays what to educate our kids. Arizona is running up a large deficit because of Republican policy expanding access to ESA's which, as your newspaper shows, subsidizes education for better off families. Nowhere, however, do we address the quality of that education or seem to understand how to measure it. International studies show that American schools are less efficient. One of the key reasons suggested is because in American schools there's a lower "demand to learn." Schools in the UK, Germany, Singapore, France have a rigorous examination system at 17+ which determines whether a student gains entry to university. We have our system of "grades" where standards vary from school to school and teacher to teacher. American students in their final year of High School know where they are going by Christmas whereas students overseas have to work harder until June, the end of the Senior Year because if they don't get the right results, they don't go to the university of their choice. It's why we here in the US have a college drop out rate of 47% and students take 4 years to graduate. Abroad it's three. It's time to demand more of our schools not who pays.