Labor Day Weekend Headlines
In case you need your school choice news fix this holiday weekend!
Vancouver Sun: Options are expanding for back to school
The Arizona Republic: Arizona’s tuition tax credits make schools accessible
New Jersey Newsroom: Why choice and charter schools matter to New Jersey
Democrats for Education Reform: Huffington promotes school choice
Red-herring shell games?
Yesterday we shared with you the first part in our examination of some of the arguments made by opponents of school choice. In the recent article, “A parent’s right to choose,” we saw several arguments made opposing choice, so today we wanted to take a look at another of these false claims.
“It’s all a red-herring shell game… The people who are pushing choice are the ones who want to be able to send their kids to schools where they have some control over who their kids get to play with, what kind of community the kids are associating with, and they apparently want to turn their backs on their own community school instead of doing the hard work of making sure that the schools that their kids are zoned to go to have the resources and high-quality teachers and kind of administrative support that they deserve to have.
As we did yesterday, we agree – in part. Most people pushing school choice DO want to be able to decide where to send their kids to school and have some control over the kind of community where their kids are being educated rather than having that decision dictated to them by government bureaucrats. And why shouldn’t they? Shouldn’t parents be able to decide if they want their kids in safe schools so they can learn without fear of violence? Shouldn’t parents be able to choose a school where their child isn’t bullied or threatened? Shouldn’t parents be able to choose a learning environment where other students share a passion for learning? It doesn’t seem like that radical a notion to us.
Perhaps some folks are not aware of some of the problems that exist in many schools in Virginia- problems that aren’t so simple that they can just be fixed with more money. Perhaps she is unaware of a growing gang problem in many public schools- even in some elementary schools.
And yet there seems to be a disdain for parents who would want to be a bit more cautious in the “community the kids are associating with.”
This is not about people turning their backs on their own community school – this is about kids and education. As we noted yesterday, there seems to be some distractaction going on from the real issues by focusing simply on schools, rather than the real goal: education.
Parents should not be criticized or faulted for wanting better for their children, for wanting to put them in an education environment where they can thrive, for wanting them to be safe when they leave home every day. It is a shame that some folks would attack those parents for wanting better for their kids.
As in the arguments we examined yesterday, they always seem to manage to bring things back around to their excuse about needing more “resources,” or more accurately, “money.” But as we pointed out yesterday, more money is not always the answer.
Kevin Chavous, a former member of the Washington, D.C., City Council who now heads up the group Democrats for Education Reform and serves on the Board for the Black Alliance for Educational Options points out, again, that the focus here should be education.
“It’s not the money. It’s what you do with the money,” Chavous said. “Funding and fueling a bureaucracy does not ensure that children are going to be educated. And that’s the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal isn’t so many dollars for public education. The ultimate goal is educating children.”
And he’s exactly right. The ultimate goal in any discussion of education reform should be educating the children. We think the only “red-herring shell game” being played here is by the opponents of choice, and their attempts to prevent real efforts for meaningful education reform and more parental choice in education.
Rally for Education Reform
Last summer when we launched School Choice Virginia, we were honored to be joined at our announcement with Kevin Chavous, a noted education reformer who also serves as chairman of Democrats for Education Reform.
As a D.C. Councilman, Mr. Chavous chaired the city council’s education committee, and led the fight for greater school choice for D.C. families- including increasing the number of charter schools from zero to more than forty schools and 17,000 students in just six years.
Earlier this month, Mr. Chavous was joined by other education reform leaders from the Education Equality Project in rallying for education reform.
“It is time for our country to stand up for our children, Chavous said. “As great as we are, we still are failing our kids. Failing them miserably. When half of the children of color drop out of high school, we are failing our kids; when we offer fewer and fewer AP courses, we are failing our kids; when our world education rankings continue to slide, we are failing our kids; and when we remain committed to a one size fits all model of education service delivery, we are failing our kids. Yes, there are some very good schools in America that provide some children with an excellent education. But that is not good enough and we are still failing our kids.”
