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Glossary to Educational
Choice
Education/Nancy
Salvato |
January 18, 2005
- Funny, the kind of educational choice available in
education is not a whole lot different than the kind of choice that a parent
or teacher offers up to a child; "You may have a red one or a blue one,”
"You may choose two cookies,” or "You may pick one show to watch after
dinner.” These choices are within the boundaries of what the adult deems
acceptable and reasonable. The child isn’t given any other options from
which to choose and so won’t be overwhelmed or choose poorly, yet feels a
sense of autonomy. Everybody is happy until the child eventually realizes
that what is really wanted hasn’t made the list of choices. Depending on the
circumstances, the child will accept that there is no bucking authority or
have a tantrum and be sent to a "timeout”.
In education, the kind of choices available to parents, are mostly limited
to the public school system. How is this so? Currently, the range of options
available for parents who choose to educate their children outside of the
public school system is (sad to say) none, if the parents can’t afford to
pay for independent schooling. Many independent schools offer a better
educational experience than public schools. They might not be able to offer
the wide range of programs but they often cover the basics with more depth
and understanding. Since the parents are paying for the product, they expect
more of their children and the service they’ve purchased. It’s no different
than when a parent signs a child up for football and pays for all the
supplies. That child is going to play until they get their money’s worth!
Up until NCLB, the understanding was that kids attend their local public
school. Some schools perform better than others. That has always been the
case. But through implementation of NCLB, parents were to be given the
option of sending their kids to better performing schools if their local
school wasn’t providing an adequate education. Unfortunately, the vision
isn’t always the realization. Instead of opening up that choice to
independent schools, choice was limited to the public school system, in its
"variety of configurations” in order to keep the tax dollars within the
monopoly of public education.
For wealthy people, this really isn’t an issue. They can pay taxes to the
public schools and afford to send their children to independent educational
institutions. But for parents who struggle to make ends meet, that is not a
choice within their grasp. So the poor kids continue to attend the poorer
schools and the wealthy continue to choose schools which are better able to
meet their family’s needs.
The authors of NCLB tried to break the class barrier to allow poorer
families’ access to the tax dollars which pay for their local public school
education and use that money to attend a school of their own choosing be it
public or independent. That, however, was cut out of the final version of
NCLB because of people like Teddy Kennedy and others beholden to the NEA.
Instead, parents can only choose to transfer their kids within the public
schools.
In order to meet the higher academic standards decided upon by the states in
order to be compliant with NCLB and its requisite of "choice” within the
system, public school funding is becoming socialist in nature. People who
choose to give up larger homes and vacations to live in a neighborhood with
a good public school are, in effect; forced to share their hard earned money
with those who either transfer their kids to that school and continue to
live elsewhere or their tax dollars are now being put into a big pot to be
split equitably amongst the schools though out the state. Irresponsible
activist judges have ordered state legislators to earmark more funding for
education; with complete disregard for the constituents who voted them into
office, local referendums and other forms of local authority over the
schools.
There are many incidentals that make transfers to other schools next to
impossible. In many areas "choice” is limited to certain subgroups of
students. Many parents can’t provide transportation to alternative schools
due to the distance and other considerations. Some parents would prefer
their kids stay in the neighborhood. Some schools don’t have available space
and have to turn people away. The transfer process is confusing and puts off
potential applicants.
"Choice” within the public schools doesn’t begin to approximate the wide
array of education available outside of this education monopoly. Parents
aren’t being afforded the opportunity to make the best decision available
for their children’s education. The message is that the parents are unable
to know how best to spend their money and it is best left up to the
government. In any other venue, a person can decide the best value for a
dollar. Why is this "choice” not afforded when it comes to education?
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