Thanks for the info. One note for you. I know AP courses aren't accepted by many colleges (at least in California where I got my bachelor's) as anything other than elective credits. Also for med school, they aren't accepted as anything at all (not that this matters, since they coul care less about electives, but just noting). If you are doing it to get ahead, I'd look into it first.
I had never heard of IB classes, but didn't consider my school to be "poor" as you say it (lol!), so it may be something fairly new (or maybe the school really does need to be quite wealthy). I graduated in '03 if that makes a difference.
We are now going off on a bit of a tangenet, but I will say that I don't necessarily blame schools for American youth being dumb and/or fat, at least not in the curriculum they teach. I will say it is damn near impossible for a kid to not get their diploma in four years time.