No Government Schools?

Here are some interesting perspectives:

• A World Without Public Schools: If the consensus underlying American public education has disappeared, why shouldn’t the institution? The Weekly Standard — David Geletmer argues for what critics of school choice have long accused proponents of secretly desiring.

Why not liberate all the vast resources we spend on public schools to be re-channeled to private schools chosen by the nation’s parents? …In the system I am picturing, education would continue to be free and accessible to every child, and all taxpayers would continue to pay for it. Parents would be guaranteed access to “reasonable” schools that cost them nothing beyond what they pay in taxes. It would all be just like today–except that public schools would have vanished.

• Public Ed 101: Why have it? National Review — Jonah Goldberg says the government should just mandate and then get out of the way.

Americans want universal education, just as they want universally safe food. But nobody believes that the government should run 90 percent of the restaurants, farms, and supermarkets. Why should it run 90 percent of the schools — particularly when it gets terrible results? …Out of the 100 largest school districts, according to the Washington Post, D.C. ranks third in spending for each pupil — $12,979 — but last in spending on instruction. Fifty-six cents out of every dollar goes to administrators who, it’s no secret, do a miserable job administrating, even though D.C. schools have been in a state of “reform” for nearly 40 years.

In a blistering series, the Post has documented how badly the bureaucrats have run public education. More than half of the District of Columbia’s kids spend their days in “persistently dangerous” schools, with an average of nine violent incidents a day in a system with 135 schools.

• On Education: Homeschooling is a viable alternative to public schools. San Francisco Chronicle — Richard Sousa identifies the solution we have chosen.

In 2000, 3 percent of elementary and secondary schoolchildren were homeschooled; only 1 percent were in charter schools, and a mere one-tenth of 1 percent had vouchers to attend private schools. Based on the numbers alone, it is clear that homeschooling is not limited to the anti-establishment or to fundamentalist religious groups or to those in the most rural of communities, as was once the claim. It is now the largest school reform alternative.

This increased growth, interestingly enough, has not come at the expense of student performance — quite the opposite. Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students to national averages for all students show that homeschooled children are well above the national average in every subject and at every grade level in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and in Tests of Achievement and Proficiency. …

Contributing to the success and growth of homeschooling are the technological advances that have made homeschooling easier and provided parents with a vast wealth of information at the fingertips of their computer keyboards. Through the Internet, research and support systems abound — they provide parents with educational tips, lesson plans and source material.

Keep in mind that the performance of these children is generally accomplished without certified teachers, without standardized curricula, without approved and mandated text books and teaching materials, and — possibly most important — without the often intrusive rules and regulations imposed by school boards and administrators.

Once you’ve decided to homeschool, you’ve done all the reforming your family needs. In a sense this could be a problem if homeschoolers withdraw from the public debate on education reform.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Education and Academia, Homeschooling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.