Posted on 08/18/2017 11:50:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
My dream of a nation free from government schools and odious teachers unions, wherein parents responsible enough to bring another human into this world are also responsible enough to ensure that human is educated without the government’s help, is unlikely to soon become reality. However, further limiting the influence of our current, failing, monopolistic education system would move us closer to the educational vision imagined by our Founding Fathers.
Teachers unions insist anyone who favors giving parents educational freedom regarding how and where to educate their children is out to destroy public education. But it’s important to note “government schools” are not synonymous with “public education.” Yes, school choice advocates typically favor a very broad understanding of public education, but most rarely, if ever, argue for rolling back public education opportunities or funding.
That hasn’t stopped advocates of the status quo from accusing innovators of being public education haters—at least, when it’s not the establishment making the changes. Missouri’s largest school district recently made the bold decision to offer education to the public in a way the public actually wants: online.
“To meet the soaring demand for online learning in Missouri — and beat for-profit virtual schools to the punch — Springfield Public Schools has come up with a home-grown solution,” The Springfield News Leader reported. “The state’s largest district announced a plan to take more than 40 courses it offers and make them available to students throughout southwest Missouri and beyond.”
Springfield Public Schools (SPS) is hardly acting altruistically. As the News Leader noted, it wants to attempt to “beat for-profit virtual schools to the punch.” Superintendent John Jungmann told the News Leader, “with private companies looking to expand in the state, it was important to come up with a local solution.”
The fact that SPS is being forced to compete and innovate to gain and retain students—and making many families happy in the process—proves why public education, even if taxpayers are paying for it, should act and be treated as though they are companies in the private sector.
SPS’s online offerings will still align to the state’s learning standards, which means they’ll likely be limited in what they can teach and how, and they’ll have to comply with the silly left-wing ideologies of government school administrators. But at least fewer kids will be forced to spend time in government school buildings, where time is often wasted and bullies cause unnecessary harm.
Jungmann sees the value of government schools mimicking the merits of choice schools. He told the News Leader the new online program is “Missouri’s solution for course-access issues for school districts and families in need of flexible and personalized learning options.”
Ironically, to acknowledge that families need “flexible and personalized learning options” is also to recognize traditional government schools are, at the very least, not always the answer. What SPS offers in online classes could, and likely will, be offered by for-profit companies at a fraction of the cost and probably at a higher quality. And “flexible and personalized learning options” are what school choice programs are all about.
Delivering families access to alternative forms of education—whether it be in the form of online classes, learning therapies, homeschool textbooks, tutoring, or private schools—is the purpose of tax-credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and vouchers, all of which are forms of “public education,” since public tax dollars fund the programs.
I don’t doubt the same people who denounce school choice supporters as public education haters will rejoice at the options the Springfield Public Schools is offering families—while at the same time completely ignoring the fact SPS is embracing the principles of private enterprise.
We can have public education without government schools, and with the elimination of government schools, families will also enjoy the end of a whole lot of corruption and wasteful government spending. The public school elites know this, which is why they are doing everything they can to resist change—until, that is, they have to because the private sector is luring away too many of their students.
First of all - kill the Dept. of Education. They teach NO students and serve no useful purpose. the DoE simply use the force of Fed.gov and money to push political ideology
The Dept of Education is also the nexus for America’s massive student debt bubble. the DoE is the new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac waiting to destroy the economy with a debt bomb, while enslaving millions of students in undischargable debt, and feeding their political allies in academia with funding.
Everything after that should be left to the States.
I spent a bit of time in the Netherlands for business and I really liked how than ran basically K-12 schools over there.
All schools were private and competed with each other using test scores, sports, arts etc. as ways to differentiate themselves in the market place. Not all schools were the same price.
The Govt gave you a stipend for your child’s education every year.
The Govt regulated and accredited the schools, similar to here.
If you wanted to pay the difference between the annual stipend and the price of the premium school. Go for it.
I thought it was brilliant. You shopped and bought what you thought was best fit for you and your kid. Schools had to compete for parents money and deliver results.
RACISM kills choice in this country. You can’t give white folks the option of spending school funds where they want.
Whites have to be forced to go to school with blacks, that is all government schools achieve.
And I've seen the other side. I've lived in china, where every single school is controlled by the central government and funded top-down. corruption is rife. choice is non-existent. Some schools are good, many schools are useless, and serious parents and students must pay the teachers under-the-table or for outside lessons to get instruction that will help the kid do well on the one-time, centrally-administered, do-or-die university exam. They do allow private "international" schools for foreigners or overseas Chinese that have more leeway, but those also must be in cooperation with the government. Its exactly why there 350K Chinese students in the USA. Those than can afford it are fleeing China's soul-killing educational system.
It has shown me the light - people must have CHOICE, and schools must be organized and run, with responsibility at the lowest possible level of society or government. Catholics have a concept called "subsidiarity" which applies perfectly here.
If you have school age kids then I guess it is a voucher as no school charges less
Woo-hoo! Over here! The short lady in the back, with the long dress and spiky gray hair!
Private pay or private charity. I repeat: private pay or private charity. Government money equals government control.
"A little bit is okay," you say? Ask the Orthodox Jewish girls' elementary school in England whose "accreditation" is being pulled because it refuses to teach the little girls about homosexuality and "transgenderism." "That can't happen here!" you say? It is to laugh.
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