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You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.
I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good. (Yes, rich people might cluster. But rich people will always find a way to game the system: That shouldn’t be an argument against an all-in approach to public education any more than it is a case against single-payer health care.)
So, how would this work exactly? It’s simple! Everyone needs to be invested in our public schools in order for them to get better. Not just lip-service investment, or property tax investment, but real flesh-and-blood-offspring investment. Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract. Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.
At least she is honest in that she is judgmental lol.
Sounds like a young, passionate person. But I actually do agree with the premise (not that private school parents are bad people) that if everyone sent their kids to traditional public schools, the schools would be better since everyone would have a stake in the educational system.
That said, that isn't going to happen in our country. So people passionate about this need to get used to it. I also bet that when she has kids, she won't send them to a crappy public school near public housing.
But something to think about is that in Finland, they had an educational crisis in the 1970s and mandated everyone attend public school and learn the same things and that is how they are the cream of the crop now in education. Everyone was educated. This won't happen in our country because too many of us think less than others who are poorer or browner than the masses, so no concerted effort will be made to improve education for all people. Luckily in many areas, people have school choice and poorer families now have the option of sending their kids to private school for free. Two of my nephews go to private schools and their parents aren't bad people, they aren't the greatest (including my sibling) as parents, but the best decision they made was to give those kids an opportunity to go to a highly regarded school. One of my nephews has an IQ of over 150, we joke (but know it is true) that he is our family genius and he is not even a teenager yet. He would not be well served at the public school in his neighborhood and not because he is black or a boy or low income, but because he is way ahead of them academically and would not be challenged. So even though I would not send my kid to a private school unless there were dire circumstances, I don't think that everyone's decision on education are cut and dry, good or bad.
And this is from a parent who did send my kid to a traditional public school for 4 years and who did "work to make the school better." This cannot be done with just one or two families at a school. Especially when teachers and administrators work together to ensure their school is run in a "business as usual" manner. We had many, what I call "battles" with that school, the board, other families, etc. so made the decision to go with a public charter that is better than most private schools IMO and it was the best choice for us. Parents leaving traditional public education, I feel is a good way to force it to strive to be better and adopt more progressive (not liberal progressive but moving away from the norm) policies on education.
The idea of sending kids to public school to better the system overall is a good one, however, not realistic. There are many places in the country where public schools are very good and in safe neighborhoods. Those that are not as good but in safe neighborhoods need more attention. But the ones that worry me and would make me consider sending my kids to private is if I only had the choice to send my kids to a public school in a not-so-safe-neighborhood. I will not put my kids in danger in order to help better the school system. If I know there's a good chance my boys will come home safely and in one piece, then I'll send them. Right now, I'm in a good public school system in a safe neighborhood, so I am proud to send them to public school. I like knowing I have my part in keeping the system going. Where I grew up, public schools were not as safe. Some were very good, but just not in safe areas. There were shootings near by and lots of other crime. Even the private schools got their share of threats. My school had a bomb threat almost monthly from the nearby public school kids. They were pranks, but the city had to take them seriously. It was more a burden than anything. But, you never know if any of those threats were to be real.
There are also parents that send their kids to a private school because of their religious beliefs. They go to a religious school based on something their parents feel strongly about. Most religious-based schools are not public so private it will be.
But I do overall support the public school system and do encourage people to send their kids there if they feel it's comparable to the private schools in their area.
I have a stake in public schools and send mine to private. You POS *******s tax the crap out of me to fund your decaying 19th century socialist propaganda machines without any recompense.
Ask Obum**** where he sent his kids to school in Chicago.
That Slater can her take her judgements and cram them back down her pie hole from whence they came.
You can't argue with that fact. When people take ownership and responsibilityof institutions such as schools, the quality of services are bound to increase.
they didn't publish that article because they believe it, or that they would actually take their own advice (given the choice). No, they wrote that article for the page clicks it would generate.
And congrats, OP, on helping slate achieve more page clicks on such an inane article.
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