School Choice

The freedom to choose is the basic right of human beings and the basis for which our country was founded. Today, however, many citizens are denied this fundamental right when it comes to education.

Many organizations such as NEA are adamantly opposed to allowing the citizens of America to choose when it comes to education. We are told where to go, what to learn, who will teach and how long we will be taught. Parents no longer have any control over their children's education.

This would not be such a problem is our schools were succeeding in teaching our children. Many NEA and others claim that the problem is a lack of funds. They say schools just need more money. How much money do they need.

Washington DC is the top spender at $10,270 per student and yet they come in dead last on the reading NAEP, SAT scores, and in high school graduates.

Utah spends $4,907 per pupil; is #2 in high school graduation; #12 in SAT scores and #25 on the reading NAEP.

The problem is obviously not money. There is a problem and it has a great deal to do with who is in charge of our children’s education. There is no one better than you to decide what your child should learn and by who. There is no one closer, other than you, to your children than their teacher. Yet, you are the two individuals who have the least amount of say in your child’s education.
Our children’s education is being dictated to us by a bunch of bureaucrats who have never set foot in our child’s school let alone the class room and they have no idea who are children are and what they need.

Our children have been lumped together in one big bureaucratic mess. They are expected to learn the same things at the same pace and in the same way. There is no room for individualism and free thinkers.

When this system started deteriorating our students into poor achievers, bureaucrats came to the rescue with “Standards of Learning” tests. Students and teachers were now given a list of what they had to learn and if they students didn’t pass, the teachers and the students failed.

Being introduced into an already dysfunctional system, this testing did very little to promote learning. What it did do was create a multitude of other problems. The school districts want to look good so they put pressure on the schools to pass the test. The schools are told they will loose funding if the students don’t pass the test, so they put pressure on the teachers. The teachers then push that pressure on to their students. This creates a pressure cooker of emotions and frustrations that turns young children into anxious worriers.

Another problem with these tests is that the teachers must teach to them. Everyone in the class must pass the test. So if Johnny absorbs the info and learns it on the first day of school, he still has to sit through it for 160 more days until Danny gets it and can pass the test too. This means that all the little Johnny’s out there (and everyone in between) are getting bored. You don’t want a bored child in school. They find ways to relieve their boredom that are not conducive to the classroom learning experience.

Another problem with public education is that everyone is expected to be the same. Not equal—same. Equality is a good thing. Everyone in this country has the right to learn. But equal and same are not the same thing. America is full of individuals. We have our own ideas, our own beliefs and our own interests. WE don’t all learn at the same pace. Some of us excel in math but struggle in English. Some us excel in English but struggle in math.

Just a few decades ago our school systems recognized this and adjusted accordingly. Those who excelled in math were allowed to progress faster. Those who struggled were given more time. Children were placed in classes based on their progress not on the first letter of their last name. Our schools weren’t near as bad then.

If our schools continue to take individuals and corral them into a system where they can not grow, expand or get excited about learning then our schools will continue to fail.

Do your want to raise a free thinker or an auto robot? There are answers to the failing school problem. It is in the choice you have as a parent. It is in your right to exercise your role as a parent and oversee your child’s education. There is a great example of the success of it in Milwaukee Minnesota. NEA doesn’t want you to know about it. But it is our job to inform and honestly, we don’t care what the NEA thinks.

Milwaukee is home to the nation’s largest school choice program for low- income families. During the past 12 years, the program has given thousands of low-income students the educational freedom that most people take for granted.

A film produced by the American Education Reform Council in 2003 shows the impact of Milwaukee’s choice program through the stories of three families whose children take part in the program and through interviews with the parents, school principals, public officials and other community leaders.

Particularly noteworthy is the positive impact that the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program has had on the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). MPS has improved. Since the implementation of parent choice, public school enrollment and test scores are up, and the drop out rate is down.

Milwaukee's mayor, John Norquist states, “In Milwaukee, all the schools, public and private have improved. They’re all focused on getting better because they want to have the parents choose them.”

Harvard Economist Caroline Hoxby stated, “I found that the Milwaukee public schools most subjected to competition from the vouchers showed rapid improvement ... (the improvement) is phenomenal by any national standards; it’s surprising more people don’t know about it, it’s really an exciting change.”

It is not money or Standards of Learning tests that will make our schools better IT IS SCHOOL CHOICE and it is your right.

If you would like to learn more about Milwaukee's success you can visit their website at
http://www.schoolchoicewi.org/issues/detail.cfm?id=6


RESOURCES

The Heritage Foundation has researched the issue of School Choice. It gives a good overview of School choice and addresses pros and cons of issue. You can view their research and download their findings here
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/Schools/schoolchoice_2003.cfm

Choices in Education: Heritage Research
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/index.cfm

Education: Opening Doors to Excellence
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Features/agenda_education.cfm

CATO Institute has also studied the issue of school choice and you can view their findings here
http://www.cato.org/current/school-choice/


Parental Choice Options
The National Catholic Education Association has compiled this information on their site.
http://www.ncea.org/publicpolicy/schoolchoice/

LINKS

The Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability
http://www.nyfera.org/

PACE: Parents Advancing Choice in Education
http://www.pacedayton.org/home.htm

School Choice Wisconsin
http://www.schoolchoicewi.org/issues/detail.cfm?id=6

School Choice

http://townhall.com