The Buckets by Greg Cravens for February 06, 2013

Complex issue. I would say that most of the challenges that face today’s student begin outside the classroom – myriad distractions, parents who don’t care enough to be involved, don’t have enough time to be involved, or don’t possess the skills that would benefit their kids, etc., etc. Still, though, it would appear that our school system could use a lot of work. “School choice,” however, as presently offered, seems to only make the matter worse. To me, “school choice” would mean, say, a traditional high school vs. a science magnet school or an arts magnet school, or traditional school year vs. year-round school, etc. Good school vs. crappy school is not a legitimate choice. If some schools in a system are clearly better than others, then any parent who cares and has time will fight to get their kids into those better schools. As a result, the kids of the more involved parents wind up in the better schools, while the kids of the less involved parents wind up in the lesser schools. This benefits the better schools at the expense of the lesser schools. If the charter schools are better than the public schools (in many cases, the verdict is actually out on that), then replace ALL of the public schools with charters, or give the public schools the same set of rules that the charters have. Don’t give the public schools death by a thousand cuts.