Some kids just can’t be saved.

There just isn’t a place in our schools for bullies, drug dealers or those that intimidate or assault teachers. While every kid should be given an opportunity to change, we need to ask ourselves, do we need to give them a place to hang out during the day and cause problems while endangering other students? The answer is no.

If they don’t want to be at school, the school shouldn’t be forced to keep them. And yes, that means public schools should be able to expel these students.

There are virtual schools on the internet — schools that provide lesson plans and opportunities for students to learn the basics but don’t have the social interaction with other students. Many of the more troublesome kids may very well do fine with an internet based school. They may even thrive in that atmosphere. But then again, some will show the same lack of commitment to their own betterment that they have in the classroom.

It is true that education is a right, but it is also a privilege. Most kids want to be in the classroom and want to do the work to earn the privilege to walk across the stage, having earned their high school diploma. Kids who don’t want to do the work or enjoy interfering with those that do, must be removed from the classroom.

In our educational climate today, there is the tendency to want to assess and grade schools for their graduation rates and their test scores. Public schools are put at a disadvantage in this area since private schools can be just as picky with who they let in as who they keep. Public schools really can’t. So why do we assess them with the same standards when clearly the premise of the service they are supposed to provide is hugely different?

There are plenty of folks out there who hate public schools. I’ve personally heard people griping that they shouldn’t have to pay for schools when they no longer have children in. The fact that they fail to understand is that we are in a society where we all chip in to make society function smoothly. While everyone will not directly benefit from every one service, we will all benefit in our senior years in the form of medicare and social security. But collectively, we all benefit from a better educated and more productive workforce, and by creating an safe atmosphere where learning is is key to our collective success.