Recently, as I was reading this article about the growth of school voucher programs called "School year ends: Nevada leads nation as more states embrace school choice", I was struck by the idea that we are just giving up on our public educational system. This article talks about how new Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), allow parents to seek more promising educational opportunities. What exactly does that mean "promising"? Why are we so prone to the shiny new things? I am all for what is best for students and everyone having a choice of where their child learns, I am not sure tax payer money should be used for this. It seems that all people do is rag on the public educational system and never provide any solutions to the so called problems. The fact is that public education teachers are the most underpaid and over worked in the educational system and public schools are held to different standards that private schools. Although private schools may align or try to integrate the state standards, it is not a requirement. Private schools are not subject to all the standardized testing that public schools are that tends to lead to teaching to the test. This restriction also limit the teaching structure and curriculum in public schools. Sure it is great to "edutain" like the Ron Clark Academy, but due to state restraints that is not always possible. Why do you think Ron Clark doesn't teach in the public schools any longer? Now, I don't know this for certain but I would put money on that the restrictions of the public school systems were too restrictive for what he wanted to do as and educator.
When did we become such a disposable society? No wonder our kids can't sustain any relationship or express empathy for other. Everything is so easily tossed aside. If everyone is so sure about the quality of these private institutions, why are we not implementing these in the public schools? Instead, we are setting up a system to toss away the public educational system. Or are we just looking for a way to take education out of the hands of state and federal governments? It seems that all the things that make these private schools so impactful are all the things that we are removing from public education. Something as simple as home economics has gone from just simply learning how to feed yourself to the culinary arts. When do we just teach, hey this if a fun meal to make home before we bog students down with the correct refrigeration temperature for commercial settings. Maybe it's time to take a step back and examine what we as a country want our children to know and value upon leaving secondary school instead of focusing on how to measure and rate teachers.
