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Public education versus private education
Pros and Cons of parental involvement in education
School vouchers debate
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Imagine going to school and finding half of your friends are moving to different schools because they have qualified for a school voucher. It’s difficult to see them go because you have known them all your life. It’s also difficult to watch them attend the school which everyone knows in your community is known to better than the one you are currently attending. Questions are also brought up to your mind with school vouchers. Students who don’t qualify may ask themselves am I put into a disadvantage because my friends are attending a school, which is known to better than mine? Did my friends choose to attend this school or were there parents up to it? These questions can cause a dilemma to the students and their families. There are many advantages to school vouchers, however there are also disadvantages. Knowing both sides can lead you to your view of the school voucher.
One of the advantages is more competition between schools. If the whole country is involved with the voucher system, the schools will somewhat compete for funding. For example if a school loses enough students that school will also end up losing their funding. Forcing that school to reexamine their practices to provide better teaching procedures. With the voucher system schools with “common” segregation will somewhat be decreased. Private schools with a common Caucasian population will receive a higher enrollment of minorities. The school voucher system gives all students equal opportunity. For the...
There has been a lot of controversy over this issue mainly because of the importance of an education in a modern society. School choice initiatives are based on the premise that allowing parents to choose what schools their children attend is not only the right thing to do, but is also an important way for improving education. Instead of a one-size-fits-all model, School choice programs offer parents various options from which to pick the educational settings they believe will work best for their child. However, there is
School funding is a recurring issue in the modern era. Debates ranging from give schools more money, to get rid of the system in place and reform a new idea have been plaguing the world over the years. “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed in 2009, provided more than $100 billion in education aid to offset budget cuts..” (School Finance). Later, “Congress provided an additional $10 billion in 2010 to avert mass teacher layoffs (Education Week, "Total Recovery Act")” (School Funding). These numbers are just a sample of the struggles in school funding, that is costing a ton of money to keep afloat. “There are many ways schools fund varying from state to state and even school to school. Income taxes, corporate taxes, sales taxes, and other fees provide 48 percent of the elementary and secondary school funds. 44 percent of local districts draw money from local property taxes. The federal government makes up approximately 8 percent of state education budgets. These funds are a dealt out on a per-student basis, and categorically to ensure enough resources for each special program or facility” (School Funding). These funds play a huge role in every student's education, either positive or negative. The three main areas that need to be addressed in the school budget are extracurricular funding, building and equipment maintenance, and last but not least staff funding.
She realized that choice and accountability were not the answer, but that curriculum and instruction were more viable solutions to America’s educational dilemma. Ravitch suggests that to abandon public schools is to abandon the institution that supports our concepts of democracy and citizenship and to the promise of American life (Ravitch, 2011, p. 12-14). The idea of school choice is rooted in Milton Friedman’s essay concerning the government’s role in education. Friedman asserted that society should support and contribute to the maximum freedom of the individual or the family. He maintained that the government should provide vouchers to help support parents financially on their children’s education, which parents could use at the school of their choosing; so long as the school met set standards. Therefore, this creation of choice would stimulate competition, which Friedman believed would increase the development and improvement of nonpublic schools, as well as, create a variety of school options (Ravitch, 2011, p. 115). As a result of the choice movement, the public received three versions of school choice: voucher schools, private schools, and charter schools. Each of these schools receives public funding, but do not operate as traditional public schools, and are not managed by a government agency (Ravitch, 2011, p. 121). Charter schools became the most popular choice of this new
Why would anyone wish to withhold support for a program that has the potential to revolutionize the, often, insufficient American education system? This question has undoubtedly entered the mind of proponents of education voucher systems across the country. However, despite the pressure placed on legislators everywhere, close scrutiny of the real issues should not be clouded by public fervor. It is my belief that, after a thorough examination of the merits of such programs, school vouchers would be a gross detriment to both the American education system and the nation itself.
Arguments For: Allows individuals or groups with innovative educational ideas to put them into practice without being unduly hampered by local or state bureaucracy. These schools may have unconventional hours, experiment with curricula, specialize in certain types of teaching or design programs tailored to a particular audience or community. Charter schools can introduce the ingredient of a measure of needed competition to the public schools. They may provide for more accountability because schools that work will be rewarded and those that do not will be changed or even closed.
The biggest difference between charter schools and public schools is that the charter schools have their own operating system, foundation and teachers. (Ravitch, Reign of Error, chapter 16, p157-160) There also are some disadvantages in charter schools, first is the quality gap, due to the quality of teaching which almost depends on teachers and principals. The second one is differentiation between races and classes. Some charter schools’ mission is to serve minorities, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, because they want to save the nations’ culture.
One of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's recent education reforms is the two-year pilot program where education vouchers will be offered to poor kids from a district in New York City public schools. These students will be given on average $6,500 a year to pay for tuition at a private school (including religious ones). The money they receive will come from taxpayers.
Recent trends toward privatizing schools and relieving them of state requirements wrongly imply that schools should mirror the desires of parents and ignore the public's interest in having citizens educated for democracy.
If America is to become an equal society, then the direction of affirmative action must be changed. Rather than continuing to focus the brunt of our efforts on helping those individuals near the top succeed, we must implement policies designed to provide opportunities to those individuals at or near the bottom. Specifically, affirmative action must return to its original purpose--helping minorities move into the middle class through programs based upon equality of educational opportunity and job creation.
For some students it is difficult to get a good education. These students live in a poor community and are required to go to schools that have a low graduation rate. These schools have a certain reputation such that other students refer to it as the “ghetto school”, “where the pregnant girls go”, and the “dropout factory”. This
Snell, L. (2002). Meaningful Public School Choice. [15 paragraphs]. Retrieved April 3, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.rppi.org/publicschoolchoice.html
You’re a ninth grader at a school in Philadelphia. The neighborhood is poor, even if not all of the students are. Your school has very little money for things like computers or technology. You walk into second period one day, sit down, and discover that the floor next to your desk is damp. The teacher explains that there is a leak in the roof, and that the school can’t afford to fix it. The school can’t afford to fix the leak or buy computers because it is inadequately funded. So the government kindly lends your school the money to not only fix the leak, but buy computers. But does that necessarily motivate you to improve your grades? Do you suddenly decide to do your homework because the leak is fixed? Probably not. The government sees that your grades remained the same, and two years later, when our school needs to hire more teachers and make the classes smaller, the government denies the school that money. They say that since money didn’t help your grades last time, why should it help you now?
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
Many people in today’s society believe it’s wise to send their children to private schools. In making the decision on whether to put children in public or private schools, they look to four main factors: curriculum, class size, the graduation rate, and cost. When people have to pay for something, their first thought is, “Will I be getting what I’m paying for?” With a private school education, the amount you have to pay is usually well worth it. Public schools offer diversity. Here students can find people who are just like them and can associate better. Wherever you live, you have to send your child to the closest school. There’s no choice on what public school you can send your child to, whereas for private schools you can pick to send your child there. It’s not an easy choice for parents to decide, but many factors point toward a guarantee that a good education would be achieved, which is most important.
I think private school are better and have more advantages than public school. There are upsides and downsides for both schools. Private schools have newer facilities and other materials. The benefits of private school for the students are that they have smaller class sizes and better teacher ratios from the students. Private have a high standards for discipline and respect to one another. Seventy two percent of parents agreed to send their kids to private school, because it has greatly improved students’performance and brighter experience and achievements in there harder lessons (Maga 2). Students will also have more individual attention. Students are motivated by the teachers to help in their studies. Parents would also have more opportunities to get involved with their kid’s education and that is very good thing. Private have flexible teaching methods for the students to do better. There are many advantages for the students (Elizabeth 1). Let’s talk about disadvantages. Their goal is to offer better education without making a profit (Amy Witherbee 2). Private school charge tuitions and that sound n...