School choice… for athletes?
The Winston-Salem Journal takes a look at student transfer policy- essentially public school choice- in “A Matter of Choice: Policy that lets athletes pick their high school generally scores well.”
While the article does mention that transfers are not simply limited to athletes, the basis of the article is that athletes are often the ones taking advantage of this provision in order to compete on better sports teams- and how this transfer policy has improved the quality of those sports teams.
In the 12 years before the policy was implemented, the system’s high-school teams combined to win 12 N.C. High School Athletic Association championships. In the 12 years since, they have combined to win 36…
Folks recognize that this competition benefits the students and the sports teams- helping make them better. Even a school board member acknowledges:
“I do think it made teams better,” he said. “The coaches worked hard before, but I think they have to work even harder to make sure teams are competitive and that their players are happy in the school. To that extent, I think it’s made everybody better.”
Exactly. Competition makes coaches work harder to attract athletes. The schools work harder to keep athletes happy in school.
It’s just too bad this article just focuses on athletics. How about academics? Shouldn’t schools also focus on the academic side- working harder to attract students for the academics, not just their athletics? Shouldn’t schools want all their students to be happy in school- not just their all-star athletes? Can’t competition help schools to work harder and do better?
Just asking….
