Socialism in Venezuela has made illiteracy a thing of the past

I'm not a socialist. But I'm not anti-socialist.Any political system can have excesses. There have at times been excesses of socialism. At present our economy is being undermined by the excesses of neo-conservatism.

I think it obviously is. What's awkward about this question, is that "socialism" is a broad term.There are certainly conservatives in USA who argue that public schools are socialist, and we should discontinue them. There is a continuing effort from the right to undermine public schools with various alternatives (voucher programs, for example).

http://www.issues2000.org/...Libertarian_Party_Education.htm
PublicEye.org - The Website of Political Research Associates
Public School Movement vs. the Libertarian Tradition | Mises InstituteOn the other hand, here is a link to a poll of attitudes toward public education. It seems to indicate good support.
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kp9809-1.htm Some of the objection appears to be to the idea of paying taxes to support public schools. Presumably those with this view don't care what happens to the 90%.Others would probably favor church schools, perhaps with the churchs paying the cost for students who cannot afford it. The principle here, as far as I can tell, is that they don't mind paying for the schools as long as they have the right to indoctrinate the children with their religious views. Many from the fundamentalist churches are offended by what they see as the teaching of atheism and/or secular humanism

For those of us with scientific instincts, there is always some basic skepticism. We should be cautious about indicating admiration, particularly if we haven't taken the time to study the details ourselves.I certainly applaud Venezuela for solving literacy problems. I don't have any idealogical objections to socialism used appropriately (not taken to excesses). I'm a pragmatists - go with what works.My reading was that Chiroptera, Coragyps, Ringo316 were all neutral or favorable to what is happening in Venezuela.