Have we not learned anything? The same old rules apply: parents do not like it when their kids use public schools, politicians decide to make it work, so parents are doing the work themselves, so public schools continue to help kids learn. Like clockwork.
So I guess it would be nice if Prince would spend a little more time reading the national news or watching “The Daily Show” rather than complaining about other people and their efforts. What’s next, complaining about how students won’t behave if they go to private schools, too?
If you’re not in the private sector, you know how easy it is to blow off public schools. They are overworked, overstressed, underfunded, undervalued and abused.
Many students who need extra help and attention and hope that, because of vouchers, they can get it, end up in special needs classes or failing miserably because they are not prepared for the rigors of high school. All the student and parent interest are about in the public sector, not learning.
And test scores are all about studying and testing. It is about making sure there is an adequate supply of school choice dollars for the right teachers to teach the right students. Anything less simply stifles our ability to allow the best teachers to perform their jobs.
If you are so concerned about test scores, then why do you insist on reading the national news? How many years of reading this stuff did you have to slog through before you realized that private schools score better than public schools, period?
When Prince says he is bothered by the students not learning, he is missing the point. He is implying that the students in the public school system are lazy. Here’s a thought, is it?
Parents and teachers hate lazy teachers and administrators, but that’s because they know that the educators need more than just enough money to provide the basics and hope that their students will get the rest. Those who are already struggling may be less likely to try hard if they know that the job is not getting done well. And that is a cycle that needs to be broken.
You may think that test scores are the only things that matter, but we all know that a student’s attitude and character are equally important, and they are often ignored. Even those educators who strive for the best know that we must address these issues in order to improve the quality of education. And that’s where we must focus our attention.
Just as we need to look at the big picture, we need to ask ourselves what we are doing in the classrooms and what we can do to ensure that we get the best test results possible. There is no reason to just wait for test results to make the case for vouchers. We need to create the conditions in the classroom that will allow the schools to do the most good, and we need to do that from the beginning.
Why would we want to add more competition between private schools that have a much harder time helping students learn if we do not have the right resources? Do we really want to force the educators who work in the public sector to teach the same stuff, just because it is required? Or is it better to ensure that the best educators are in the schools that the students are attending?
