Tag: religious schools

It’s back-to-school season across the country, and as children sharpen pencils and power up tablets, we had a burning question for parents and caregivers: Do you still have faith in America’s public school system?

The tug-of-war between public and private has been simmering for decades, and with President Donald Trump‘s decision to dismantle the Department of Education and congressional Republicans’ push to funnel more money into private and religious schools, the K-12 conversation has now come to a boil. Parents and children, it seems, have more options than ever – charter schools, homeschooling and “unschooling” among them – and we wanted to know how you decide what’s best for your families.

Do public schools offer a competitive education for students? Are vouchers the answer? What would you do to improve our school systems? Do you think your own schooling and experience prepared you for the so-called “real world”? Dozens of readers from Massachusetts to Montana and Iowa to Arkansas responded in our latest Opinion Forum. Read a collection of their perspectives below.

We’re grading public schools on the wrong curve

Public schools are a public good. It’s not just about educating our own children, but also about making sure we have the educated citizens essential to a democratic society. Yet the vast majority of public schools are historically underfunded; they are already an endangered resource. Those who need schools the most will not benefit from vouchers; they will be hurt even more.

Our schools already have to scramble for funds just to maintain the quality they have. Meanwhile, there’s a tremendous need for additional programs like public preschool and year-round schools, not to mention a tremendous need for higher teacher salaries ‒ which are criminally low.

So-called choice programs like vouchers only drain funds from the neediest public schools and subsidize the parents of private-school kids. Vouchers and school choice programs will only take us backward. We cannot afford to lose more kids than we already have.

I think the culture wars are mostly at fault for this. The evangelical right has had an outsize influence on national politics in their lobbying for things like prayer in schools. The social media fight about diversity, equity and inclusion and “wokeness” isn’t helping. Yes, many parents perceive that the public schools are failing them or their children, and I can understand this. But the pressures on public schools today are enormous. They are asked to do more and more ‒ to remediate, counsel and even feed kids ‒ all while their funding keeps shrinking and their public support diminishes.

Private schools do no better than public ones – if you control for the factors that affect that child’s life outside the school. Public schools must accept every student who walks through the door − from the impoverished and the abused children to the kids who’ve never been read to until their first day of kindergarten. Of course private school kids are going to score better on standardized tests or other measures of “educational outcome” than public school kids!

I attended multiple Catholic schools as a child, then attended public high schools. When I compare my schools with my children’s, I see my own education as mediocre. My children’s education was far and away better than mine in every sense; the schools of today teach understanding and critical thinking, while mine emphasized rote learning and memorization. Looking back, I see that this was because the public school was more concerned with the “whole child,” and valued our emotional health as much as our classroom achievement.

— Patty Kruszewski, Richmond, Virgina

Our public school systems are antiquated

My child has autism, so the convenience that other parents may feel from a simple school bus drop-off or pickup is not what I want or need. I want the school to be welcoming of parents, to be more of a small community, and collaborative. Educating my child is my responsibility, and I’m partnering with whatever school I send him to, and I want everyone to feel that way.

It might have made sense 100 years ago to carve school assignments up by geography and use property taxes to pay for it, but it seems very antiquated today. People want a variety of options, and one school will never cater to all needs. Schools get stronger when everyone is there because they want to be ‒ not because they are compelled to be.

For years, public schools complained of overcrowding; now they’re complaining because schools and classes are getting smaller. Is there an optimal funding, enrollment and staffing level? We already spend more per pupil than most other industrialized nations. People are having fewer kids and are recognizing that their kids need different things.

Your Turn: I was a young mom. You couldn’t force me to have a baby in this economy. | Opinion Forum

Outcomes are relative. Anyone with more than one kid knows that each is unique and needs something different. Some do well in large schools, some don’t. Some do well with tech, some don’t. Some need more character education, some need more hard skills. Education is as complicated as religion, and trying to boil it down to the governance or tax status seems odd.

I mostly went to a low-cost, religious private school. I was rebellious and wanted to go to a public high school. My parents didn’t let me. I think I got a good education − probably better than the school I wanted to go to − but education is what you make of it. If you don’t have personal responsibility, motivation or interest, you’re not going to learn in any type of school.

Education is framed as if it’s a conveyor belt, and if you miss a section, you’re doomed. It’s an industrial view of education that should have gone out of fashion decades ago.

— Adam Peshek, Atlanta

I’m a public school teacher. We need active parents.

As a public school teacher, I fully support anything that helps get parents involved in the education of their child. Without proper parent involvement, a child will not succeed in school. A voucher plan may help parents get involved. That said, taking resources from public schools is not the answer, especially when those resources go to schools that do not play by the same rules as public schools.

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Public schools are often the scapegoats for problems happening at home. Communities must invest in education, but the accountability for those investments must be consistent and applied evenly, no matter where parents use their vouchers.

Parents and students will get out of school exactly what they expect. Nothing more. Nothing less. No matter which school you choose for your child, you need to hold it to the standards you expect.

I attended a mix of public and private schools. I value my time in both. I thank my parents for being involved in the schools they chose for me.

— Andrew Taylor, San Antonio

I don’t want government schools or vouchers ‒ just freedom

I feel I can give my kids a better quality of education than public schools can. I’m a minority that grew up in an inner-city public school. I remember teachers walking out due to a lack of funding, busy work, 40 kids to a classroom, and watching movies with subs. My kids will have none of that. They can all read above grade level. And thanks to my privilege of being a stay-at-home mom who has money, I can afford to go all in and give them everything I didn’t have access to. Plus, I don’t have to worry about school shootings or bullying.

I don’t know about private schools, but most homeschoolers I know don’t want vouchers. We don’t want government money because that will likely come with more government oversight. We want the freedom to teach our kids our way without red tape or hoops.

I realize not everyone can homeschool or send their kids to private schools, but generally, I don’t think public schools are doing a good job. And that’s coming from someone with lots of friends and family who work in education. Kids can’t read today; they’re not ready for college or the real world, so yes, I get why people are looking for alternatives.

Public school is a good safety net, but quality education? Decent, maybe. OK in some areas, sure, but on the whole? I don’t think it’s very good. I think we should just privatize the whole thing and give large incentives for inner-city communities or communities of color and poor areas so they can have access to education as well. Charter schools are already taking over − might as well lean into it, especially as public schools are not teaching well and not paying teachers well.

— Daisy Garant, Granbury, Texas

Public schools are the best educational option. No question.

When it came to deciding what kind of education I wanted for my kids, being able to compete in the job market and having exposure to a diverse environment were the most important factors for me.

Study after study has proved that wealthy families benefit most from vouchers. In my family, we are high-income earners but cannot afford private school tuition and would not qualify for a voucher. Vouchers seem like a fabricated scheme by conservatives to drain funds from public education and force children into private Christian schools, where they will be indoctrinated with some version of Christianity instead of focusing on education. Whatever version it purports to teach may not be the version that aligns with our family values.

My kids enjoy going to school. I understand that some districts have safety concerns the district should address, and I am worried about public funding.

Public schools, without question, are the best educational option, exposing kids to a diverse group of people and ideas. Religious education is important if you are educating children on the variety of faiths practiced. What is inappropriate is when you single out one faith as the “true faith” to the exclusion of all other faiths. My kids will encounter people of many different faiths in society.

Society can be difficult to navigate as an adult if you have been taught that anyone who doesn’t believe in your faith is immoral. For example, if schools are trying to educate based on Christianity, which version of Christianity is the right version? Protestant versus non-Protestant? Which Bible is the right version? King James or New International Version?

The separation of church and state is foundational. I want my kids to learn history, social studies, math and science-based standards, based on proven scientific research and historical facts. When I want my kids to explore their faith, that is done by our church, not our schools.

I attended public school in a small Midwestern community with wealthy families, farmers’ families and economically disadvantaged families, and learned something about each of those distinct groups of people. We said the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school. That’s what I want for my kids, and I think that’s what most families want.

— Betsey Streuli, Edmond, Oklahoma

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I give my kids a better education than public schools could | Opinion