It’s no secret that public education in the U.S. is falling behind in world rankings. A 2009 study found showed that U.S. students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science, behind nations such as China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland. Unfortunately, four years later the U.S. remains in a similar situation. There has been little done within the government to support public education whether through funding or legislation, and in combating the gap between us and the world, politicians continue to push for alternative schools such as private or charter schools.
The issue itself isn’t whether charter schools can succeed (as many schools have demonstrated progress with aggressive academic tactics), it is whether the government is willing to depend solely on these schools in effort of replacing the public school system. In theory, a change to charter schools can be positive. Most people who see these schools in a positive light often focus on the ability for school choice and greater flexibility in the classroom. It sounds great, but what about the children now, who can’t get into charter schools because of the enormous wait lists or those who don’t have these schools within their reasonable proximity?
I see the positivity in charter schools. There are many that provide children with the best education possible, however pubic education is the ONLY way to educate all of the American youth and by fixing public education you wont’ leave any child behind.
I consider the charter school the band-aid in my educational band-aid theory. Think of someone who has just gone under major surgery, the doctor doesn’t have a large enough band-aid to cover where the incision was thus exposing the majority of the incision. The educational sector is similar in that the charter school can only cover up so much of America. While some of these alternative schools are thriving they simply aren’t doing enough to ‘band-aid’ the extreme gap in education in America.
That is when politicians believe that by putting more emphasis into these thriving charter schools that the educational gap is fixed. That is also when they are incredibly wrong. Once charter schools reach their peak, there still will be waiting lists to get into the top-tier schools, which if not chosen in a lottery, that child will be subjected to a lesser charter or public school education. In this scenario, the rich won’t get richer, but the poor also don’t get richer; it is up to chance as to who gets rich (we’re talking academically rich in this case).
If the government focuses on public education where every child has an equal opportunity in schools, every child is affected, closing the gap and making our educational sector stronger. In our focuses on public education we can analyze how and why these charter schools are successful and apply them to public education.
If we stick with public education, every child has a chance to succeed.
Related articles
- Con: Charter schools mean well, but good intentions haven’t worked (jacksonville.com)
- Charter Schools are Public Schools – Exposing the Truth about the Tale of Gulen Charter Schools (sonoranscienceparents.org)
- One in Five Charter Schools Should Close on Performance – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- Poverty’s effect less damaging to public schools’ scores than charters, report finds (jsonline.com)
I love that last sentence: “If we stick with public education, every child has a chance to succeed.” Absolutely. Charter schools are not the answer to our public school system, and the competitive model does not give students who are struggling a better chance. But how do we get those in power to let go of this charter school love fest in order to work on solutions that will impact all kids in our communities positively?
Education is the answer, The question is how it can be delivered in a way that creates a new, next generation of thinkers.
Teachers are our most valuable resource. How can we get techers involved in one on one teaching in the classroom?
How can we keep children engaged and inspired in the classroom using new technologies. I have been doing some research into augmented reality technology. This is the future of Education. Charter schools and homeschoolers, especially cyber schools are starting to use this dynamic interactive innovation. What about our brick and mortar schools?
How many of the staff in traditional school would even know how to conduct a classroom via internet?
How many can understand concepts of augmented reality?
Next year 2013-2015 our children will will have ar glasses and tablets to interact with the world around them. They will engage their reality in a whole new an different way. How much longer will we be putting them into yellow schoolbuses and bring them into an environment where they don’t belong anymore. Forcing them to learn cirriculum standards and Department of Ed benchmarks. There is a mass exodus out of brick and mortar schools to a home Public Cyber schools in our district. They may not be the right answer for educators but it is the only answer for parents of children who cannot manage the stresses of traditional public schools.
We also have to address… and quit blowing cover up smoke about the bully situations in the classroom, on the buses and neighborhoods. That is a big reason why children and their parents are looking for safe haven in PublicCyber /Private Charter schools. As a teacher, I am worried but as a parent I completely understand!
There are two things we can do? Stand around and shake our fist at the darkness, or find some light and begin to innovate.
I am afraid that public education, in brick and mortar schools has become too rigid… It seems it cannot bend anymore without breaking and that is not good for children either. We are educators, We live to figure out problems. Critical thinking is our expertise. Thank you for having this conversation about Charter schools. It is an important one to continue.
Pingback: Public Cyber schools and Charter schools , The Future of education? « kidtecheducation·
“It sounds great, but what about the children now, who can’t get into charter schools because of the enormous wait lists or those who don’t have these schools within their reasonable proximity?”
Unfortunately, there aren’t any ideas for reforming ALL public schools now that don’t also leave out children currently in public education. The county (or even just states) is not going to come up with a one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of education in America. Individual districts? Yes. Empowering people to make “small” change locally is the best idea I’ve heard to date.
I like your point about not leaving public schools behind. The selection process for charter schools needs to random. Charter schools benefit by getting waviers from the plethora of rules, regulations, and mandates of state departments of education. These rules need severe pruning. One thing that you didn’t mention is the failure of many charter schools that were entrepreneurial scams. Hopefully the market will weed these out. I need to research more on this.
I think all options should really be on the table. Seriously there are some home situations where children should never be homeschooled. Also, on the reverse side there are some school districts that should not be allowed to endanger children. The real honest answer is Choice, what is best for the education of your children. We need fresh new thinking and less demonizing of any options. What we really need is teachers and parents talking to each other again. And we must always ask ourselves… what kind of education would best suite our child’s individual needs and learning style.
Giving children the chance to succeed doesn’t mean that they will succeed. Some students are content with failure. The responsibility for learning truly lies with the student. Parents, schools, teachers, educational methods… all play a crucial role, but just as you can’t make a toddler fall asleep, you can’t force or cajole young people into learning until they realize the desire or need for it.
This means that some students will choose to fail. We have to acknowledge this and stop feeling guilty about it.
It is helpful, when considering education reform in America, that one understands the forces behind the conception and implementation of the public education system. In 1657, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a law that any village of more than 50 families hire a schoolteacher and that attendance by the village children was mandatory. That was fine and dandy.
But when Horace Mann came along, he saw schools as a possible tool for creating social unity. He wanted textbooks, teachers, standards, skills, and values taught to be approved by the state- and NOT explicitly for the purposes of providing an education to America’s children. His plan to provide an education for all was noble on the outside, but he had underlying motives for his actions.
Our free market system allows citizens to use only those products and services that they can afford and find useful, so businesses that provide goods and services that people want to use for the price find themselves highly successful. The gov’t never invented a program that the private sector couldn’t do better and for less money. I watch bridges and off ramps being repaired by the DoT that take 3 years and millions of dollars, then watch a local independent contractor rebuilt a bridge in 2 weeks for about 20G. Oy vey.
I don’t know much about why charter schools succeed or fail, but homeschoolers show again and again that a parent with dedication and determination can provide a much better education than a traditional school and for a fraction of the cost.
I agree with you that we need to study what the successful charters have done and apply their goals, objectives, and methods to the public education system
Nice post! I would also point out that the research on this subject concludes that charter schools fare no better than public schools in their students’ achievement. There are examples of both excellent public and charter schools. Those with a particular agenda like to highlight excellent charter schools to try to further their privatization agenda, although the evidence would point to another conclusion.
Pingback: The Home School Vs The Public School | moderndaychris·
Agreed! Anyway, too many chartered public schools have results little better than the standard ones. And there are places where a charter is unavailable unless the unions approve.
Perhaps, unless it is blocked by union pressure, education delivered via the Internet by private sector publishers will make a difference….
I respectfully disagree that public schools give every student a chance to succeed. I like the idea of charter schools, not necessarily the practice. I agree with the thrust of your piece and many of your points. Bottom line, I want the quality of education improved for everyone. But I also want abler and more gifted children to be unburdened by a system that of necessity caters to mediocre standards. To the extent that charters model a better way for others to emulate, I think that;s good. But they’re certainly not the answer. We need so much more. Hopefully bright young minds like yours will figure it out.
Thanks for liking my blog! Your piece on charter schools has many great points. If America had the ability to make all schools like charter schools, then we wouldn’t have the problems with the public school systems. Charter schools are a great idea in theory, but the practice isn’t always executed well. There is no easy solution to this, but information is the first step. Thank you for your post on the subject!
How do you feel about private schools and home schooling? The number of private schools in the U.S. is increasing and the cost is decreasing. I know that some parents home school who are not dedicated to the task, but an increasing number do an excellent job.
thanks for the question. i just wrote an article on home schooling Thoughts on Homeschooling vs Public School . i will tackle private schools soon!
Three words: John. Taylor. Gatto.
I could not agree with you more! I just said in a post I wrote recently titled “Vol.#22: The Dark Side of Choosing School Choice”
“…we’ve created a system cloaked in the party line of empowering students and parents, where the reality has school systems and educators fighting over the last scraps like dogs over the last lean bone.”
These Charter Schools serve to pull resources from the rest, and then the data is held up. “Look how much better Charters are!” Maybe I could do that too if I had 18 and not 35 in a classroom, and one-to-one technology instead of four decade-old computers in the room.
The pulling of resources, and then side-by-side comparison, is simply unfair and misleading. I love your band aid analogy!
i was very pleased to find this site. i wanted to thank you for this great read!! i am definitely enjoying every little bit of it and i have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
There are other alternatives to public and charter. There are magnet schools, also free like town based public schools, which has an admissions process. Also, there is a new breed of public schools called career academies that are popping up everywhere. Career academies in New Jersey accept students within a county. The highest ranked career academy in NJ is called High Technology High, which is ranked #10 in the nation by US News and World Report. All the career academies focus on STEM or health sciences. In Middlesex County, New Jersey, the vast majority of the junior class of the allied health career academy wants to become doctors and the school is catering to that education.
Good post! Many people see charter schools as incubators of new ideas that can be applied system-wide down the line. While that could be true with regard to overarching school policies, much of what makes teachers and specific lessons effective are shrouded in mystery. I see that as a huge problem. We have the talents of fantastic teachers confined to a particular subset of students within a school. If we could cull the best practices from our top teachers, regardless of whether they work at a private, public, or charter school, we would make significant progress.
I think the fact the charters are somewhat less effective than public schools reveals what the true culprit is in reforming education: the myth of an educational crisis. Charters and publics that do well do so because they have high achieving students attending them and vice versa. The type of school is irrelevant in drastically changing outcomes. Publics are the best way to give children an equitable education, but until we reverse the trend of privatizing education, we won’t be able to change our focus towards doing that.
proxi, “… The type of school is irrelevant in drastically changing outcomes. Publics are the best way to give children an equitable education, but until we reverse the trend of privatizing education, we won’t be able to change our focus towards doing that.”
Proxi, do you work for the teachers union or perhaps is a member of a way-over-staffed and bloated school administration? Public schools are failing three quarters of their students. We can not reform public schools directly because the power centers do not want reform. How many bad teachers in public schools are fired each year? Zero is the answer. How many teachers in private schools are fired? 10 percent is the answer. Private schools weed out the worst because they must please their clients or the parents move their kids to a better private school. Unions protect all their members so firings do not happen. Public schools have an effective monopoly. Teacher evaluations are meaningless (if they are performed at all) because no one is held accountable.
The democrats in power, as much as they want reform, will not do it in any significant way because the reelection money will stop. The good teachers are trapped in a system where they have no say where their union dues are going, where there is no accountability, where the incompetent and lazy are rewarded and protected. So we see a few over-subscribed charter schools, which the unions bitterly oppose, we hear talk of voucher programs, which the unions bitterly oppose (or why else did President Obama terminate the successful program in Washington D.C.), and Common Core standards, which have some good elements. but the progressives can’t resist adding in their anti-American, pro-Marxist rants to the lesson plans.
Quick reform is doomed. When you follow the money you can see significant reform will not happen in time for most children. We can only hope the alternatives will bring enough competitive pressure over time to break the union’s status quo. In the meantime parents must learn to cope by using alternatives to relying solely on public education. If not our children fail and our country fails.
As soon as I found this site I went on reddit to share some of the love with them.