The public school system is (churning out clones). Based on the "German" model we emulated it's supposed to prepare students for a trade. Based on the "globalization" of the workforce and our inability to prevent jobs from moving offshore; it's churning out putty. The real question is: who's benefitting from public education today? Is it the children, or the vested interests that are drawing their paycheck from the taxpayer's pocket? How often has the school district in your town held annual spending in check?