If you've paid attention to the news in the last year or so, or if you've been through public schooling yourself in the past ten years, you know that America's public schools are a mess. Kids are put through the ringer emotionally, physically, and mentally. As a graduate of public schools myself, home-schooling and private schools are looking better and better with each passing day. Here're just a few reasons why I won't be sending my future kids to public school.

1. The bullying has gotten out of hand

With technology the way it is, bullying happens so much more often than parents know these days. I was bullied in school, yes, but verbally. Cell phones and texting were becoming increasingly common as I went through school. And kids don't cope with bullying well.

2. Kids aren't going to feel safe

We have a President right now who has never sent either of his kids to public school. He doesn't how what it's like. And with passing legislation that any kid should able to use any bathroom they want, you're going to get kids who don't feel safe--in an already high-pressure environment.

3. The pressure is strong

There's pressure to do well in classes so you get into college, pressure to make friends, pressure to figure out who you are. Kids can only take so much pressure before they crack. We hear about the teen suicide rates going up and I blame the state of America's public schools for part of that rate.

4. The peer pressure problem is out of hand

Along with the pressure to make friends comes the pressure to do what your "friends" tell you to do. This is why the problem with drugs and smoking is so prevalent in the public schools.

5. The discipline needs reform

Yelling at kids and just handing out detentions is not going to help the situation or make the kids realize what they did wrong--especially if they're a regular in detentions. Kids don't care. Not all kids, but a lot of them. Kids these days are not afraid to talk back to their elders. So yelling and handing out detentions isn't going to work.

6. The student-teacher ratio is out of proportion

Yes, there're small public schools and small districts across the nation, but many public schools are big schools. And the larger the school, the more out of sync the ratio is, which means the teachers don't have the control of the class they need nor can they give as much specialized attention to the necessary kids.

7. The conditions of the schools are in the hands of the voters

With budget votes and school board votes, too much of the lives of kids are left in the hand of the voters.

8. There're no morals in public schools

This is another thing we hear of in the news these days. The relationships between teachers and students are more often getting inappropriate. And if that's not the case, teachers are too often trying to become students' best friends instead of being a teacher and a mentor. Last I checked, becoming best friends with students wasn't in a teacher's job description.

With all of these problems in America's public schools, I know I wouldn't be comfortable sending my kids there. Not when I know they can get just as good of an education at a private school or through home-schooling. And I have known enough kids in my day that have gone to private school or been home schooled to know that either of these education are possible without running the risk of them being sheltered. I just feel that if my kinds would be safer and happier, why not send them to private school or home school them?