The Children Have Been Left Behind

It may have never been formally codified into law, but freedom of choice may be one of the most important liberties we hope to enjoy as American citizens. It’s one we exercise daily, from the food we choose to eat to the products we choose to buy. We choose our leaders, and even choose not to choose if we are so inclined. So why is it that we should allow the government to restrict citizens to a single choice when it comes to education?

Public schools in America face a number of basic issues. They have suffered from classroom overcrowding since the 1990s. No Child Left Behind changed their focus from helping kids learn to making them learn to decode tests. Common Core has left many parents bewildered as children are taught ridiculously circumspect ways to solve basic problems.

In the most egregious cases, dilapidated buildings put children at risk, such as in Detroit where striking teachers published photos of bullet holes in windows and mold & mushrooms growing from the walls. The New York City Public Schools’ notorious “Rubber Room” was a wasteful concession to the public education unions where failed educators remained on the payroll while sitting around playing games and awaiting hearings instead of being fired for outrageous infractions.

Perhaps most startling is that the allocation of taxpayer dollars in public school is going to an unreasonable number of non-teaching staff, the hiring of which has outpaced student population growth by an absurdly large wide margin:

Yet, for all these issues, parents without the ability to pay for private schooling are still left in the frustrating position of having to send their children to failing schools assigned to them by their local boards of education. And even those who can afford to pay out of pocket are still on the hook for taxes to keep these institutions alive well past their expiration date.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics’ “Nation’s Report Card” program, private and parochial schools have routinely outpaced public schools in math and reading assessments. But the absence of voucher programs puts this education out of the reach of many underprivileged and minority students, who are most in need of better educational opportunities. Charter and magnet schools are often a more realistic option, with an added layer of accountability as staff are easier to replace and there are real consequences for the school administration if they fail to produce results.

But private schools require tuition, and charter schools have such high demand that they select their students through interview processes and lotteries. This results in these higher-quality educational opportunities drawing away students who are already performing well, leaving poor & underperforming students — the ones most in need of an alternate education method — in the lurch.

That is not to say public schools are all beyond help. There are plenty of successful public schools run by competent faculty and supported by active parent involvement. But if a child does not have the fortune of living in the neighborhood, they may be stuck with failure. So merely opening the option of sending a child to a different school in the same system would be an instant blessing for many parents. Public schools do not truly have to compete with other options, and this is why they are failing students. Accountability is one of the most effective motivators for positive change.

In 1979, Pink Floyd, in their musical opus “The Wall,” compared public schools in the UK to a sausage grinder, and the comparison is often just as apt here. Our children are fed into antiquated, overcrowded facilities, which try to bludgeon them into submission with rote memorization with a goal no more ambitious than churning them out into a workforce they are unprepared to navigate. Their critical thinking and problem-solving skills are being ground to dust.

This is why school choice is such a pivotal battleground for parents and advocates: it is the true common ground between individual freedom and social justice. But if it is to be an effective option for students and their families, we must ensure that educational choices are available to students who need it most, not just the ones who will keep the money rolling in.