Everything Has a Price
What a wonderful idea this concept of school choice. To be able to send your children to the school that is just right for them. What parent would not jump at the opportunity to send their children to the absolute very best school? It’s a no brainer, right? Sure is but, at what price? There is no doubt that at this juncture in history, we are living in a “me” society. We have somehow begun to mold the Constitution to fit the times. There are those who think we can say or do anything we want, regardless of the impact to others. The current atmosphere in which highly sensitive classified information is being leaked and or shared with those who seek to damage or injure our way of life, and the increased sense of entitlement that seems to be pervading throughout our country is only the tip of the iceberg as the continued demand for “choice” increases. Now in an effort not to sound religious in any way, I think most of you will agree that we all have been endowed with a free will. This free will however, is not intended to mean total entitlement. It is that endowment that our Nation’s Founders specifically made the point of writing into the Constitution that tells us that while we do share certain unalienable rights; there are limits which are identified within the amendments to this living, breathing document.
Obviously, with most everything there comes a price. If we use the free will we have been given for good such as choosing to attend an Ivy League University there is a price. On the other hand if we use that free will for bad such as robbing a bank, there will also, of course, be a price. So the question now before us is should there be a price for parents who choose to send there children to schools other than the local public school which has been made available to everyone at no additional out of pocket cost? Now the argument for that question would be that parents could choose the local “public” charter school of which most are free of charge. As you will note the word public in the previous sentence is in quotations, I did that to point out that although most charter schools residing within the local public school district are free, however, they are free to those who qualify. For example; it is widely known that many, if not most charter schools are, to put it nicely, hesitant to accept special needs students. This is no doubt in an effort to save money on specialized staff and needed services as well as the underlying reason that mainstreamed special needs students often lower the scores on the mandatory state assessments given to students at the prescribed grade levels. This arguably discriminating practice leaves the local school district struggling to provide those much needed services to those students who remain. The local school districts are required by law to provide those services which may include but certainly are not limited to; intense counseling, reading specialists, psychologists, speech therapy, occupational and physical therapies, additional in-classroom support along with a long list of other services specifically designed for the individual student.
However, the school districts are expected to provide these services with reduced budgets. Budgets that have been siphoned from by the charter schools which, by the way, are not required to provide those services on a universal basis. There in lies the “price” for the privilege of choice. Parents of children with special needs as well as parents who want to keep their children close by enrolling them in the neighborhood schools are left with under funded, understaffed, and under achieving schools for their children who cannot move to the charter system. Those parents who are burdened with price of other’s choice are often those of color, economically disadvantaged or not educated enough themselves to properly advocate for their children. Regrettably, this discrimination is being acted out in so many of the urban centers and all being done in the name of choice. Well, if you ask one of those parents whose child is in need of those special services and are not receiving them at the required level if they are satisfied with the choices they have been given, their answer would be a resounding NO!
There is so much that can be said about the school choice issue that the road would lead us in way too many directions and could really confuse us as we seek out what is real news and what is “fake news”. Therefore, after thinking about which path to clarity we should take, it might be best if we follow the path that has been clearly laid out by Betsey DeVos the Nation’s new Secretary of Education. There has been much “real news” that has come out of the State of Michigan where Ms. DeVos and her family have been the leaders in the movement to privatize public education.
Much of the news is centered on Detroit where 79% of Michigan’s charter schools are located. Therefore, it is indeed fair to focus on how students enrolled in those privately run public charters have faired since the system’s inception. The problem however with attempting to report out results is that there is simply no accountability, because little or none is required. The privately run charters are just that, private. They feel that they are private entities and are not subject to outside oversight. What is known is that even when poverty levels are taken into consideration, the local public school students have done marginally better than their charter school counterparts when it comes to math and reading scores. There are some that would argue however, that the charter schools enjoy much higher graduation rates (nearly 100%) as compared to the local public schools. This comparison is quite laughable since charter schools can graduate anyone they like in the absence of any measured graduation requirements. Students with behavioral issues along with students, who are found to have special needs after enrollment, are simply sent back to the local sending districts. Subsequently, graduation rates are nearly never a problem.
Can the price of real choice be the complete abolishment of the public school system as we know it? Are we really ready to give up on are public schools? Have the billions of dollars we have spent and all the hours that those devoted public school teachers have given to their students, all been for naught? Are we so intent on achieving, that constantly sought after, instant gratification, that having a choice may bring, we are losing sight of what is really important?
It is now, more than ever, time to step back, take a breath, and in the solace of your hearts and exercising the awesome responsibility that comes with being endowed with free will and answer those questions that are set before us. Realizing that education has changed but not so much that we must abandon what we have built, we can rebuild our education system. Just as we have rebuilt our communities after natural disasters, our economy after recessions and depression, and our strength of resolve after terrorist attacks, we can and will rebuild and restore public education fairly and intelligently. We need not pay such a devastating price to enhance what is good about public education and fix what is broken.
