A study released last week by the libertarian Cato Institute showed that students are transferring in unexpectedly large numbers from private schools to charter schools, but it framed the shift as a largely negative development. It’s true, as the study reported, that such transfers cost states and taxpayers more; unlike private schools, charter schools get most of their funding from state tax dollars. Still, we see a lot to celebrate.
For years, urban public school systems such as the Los Angeles Unified School District have tried, with limited success, to lure private school families as a way of bringing in more enrollment and resources. The state funds public schools largely on the basis of how many students attend, so higher enrollment means more money for school districts. And private school parents tend to have more education and more money that they might use to help out at their schools, helping all students there. They might also become involved in lobbying for more funding for education, which would be good for public schools and charters alike.
The move to charter schools shows that private school parents can be persuaded to enter — or return to — the public system if the programs are attractive, the campuses safe and the staffs responsive. That’s something public schools should take note of, and imitate.
Charter schools were developed in the early 1990s to give families a choice. Largely, that choice was intended to help impoverished families whose neighborhood schools were failure factories and who could not afford to move to different neighborhoods or send their children to private schools. But not all private school families are wealthy, so charters appeal to them as well. Some families go into debt to send their children to private schools because local public schools are so bad that they see themselves as having no other option. And transfers have been particularly high from Catholic schools, the report noted, including low-priced parochial schools, many of whose students come from families without much money.
There’s long been an assumption that white parents in urban areas have turned to private schools in part to separate their children from the growing black and Latino populations in the public school system. But when white students transfer from private schools to charters, the study notes, they’re moving from more segregated schools to more ethnically diverse ones. That too is a good thing.
In a robust education system, families feel as though they have worthwhile options in both the public and private schools. We see this as one move in that direction.
Los Angeles Times (Sept. 5)
Just more of an attempt by parents to blame public schools for their kids’ behavior problems, which leads to learning problems. If parents spent more time disciplining their kids, maybe kids would start learning again.
That’s not entirely true actually. While I’ll agree today’s kids are way out of hand (which I believe is not something that happened over night but over many years) the public school system has been failing. I realize we can’t just blame the schools because they have so many rules and regulations regarding what the teachers can, can’t, and are required to teach that it’s left the who system in a state of dysfunction. What I do know is this; since getting out of grade school 10 years ago I’ve learned more on my own and been opened to more new ideas than I could have ever imagined. It isn’t just new ideas either. I’ve learned how many historical facts were either glossed over entirely or only given as half truths. I’ve found how I best learn about math which is a subject I had a lot of problems with in school (and in college as well), and I now see the political slant that many of my teachers had.
All that being said, many parents aren’t helping out at home, and that’s a statement that came directly from friends of mine in the teaching profession. Out of hand kids in the classroom effect everyone because the teacher is constantly distracted. If I had promise of a school where that wouldn’t happen of course that’s where I’d want my kid to go.
Did your math teachers have a political slant? Hard to believe for a subject like that. Care to elaborate?
Sorry for the confusion. Those two items were supposed to be separate points. My math teacher was actually a very good guy and helped me try to learn the subject as best he could but the time constraints they’re put under and the goals they’re supposed to meet are mot conducive to helping students gain the most of their education. Seems as though our current rankings reflect that unfortunately. There are many teachers that I really feel bad for because while they want to do their jobs effectively it seems as though they’re not allowed to.