Sunday, November 4, 2007
Selecting Your School
There are so many choices out there. There are so many schools out there that so many people are unaware of. Many parents probably feel that there is no realistic alternative to the public school in their neighborhood. I knew little or nothing about Charter or MAGNET schools until I took this class. I still don't know much, and I am a fairly educated person. What I have learned is that in order for everyone to have an actual choice, we must make sure there are viable options for people to chose from. I found this website which proposes SOLUTIONS to this problem. If you have time, check it out! http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/position.htm
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4 comments:
Up until this class I was unaware about magnet and charter schools as well. I think a main reason may be because I did not grow up in major city and therefore did not attend urban schools. However even some of the students who did attend urban public schools did not seem aware that they had a charter school or magnet school in their neighborhood, so it makes me question the accessibility of such schools. However, in stead of putting money into charter and magnet schools, money should be put into the deteriorating urban public schools and then just use those schools to promote integration in stead of having some children in magnet schools and others left to attend the forgotten urban public schools. It is not fair that some children get to attend a school of their choice while other are left to feel unimportant as their names sit on a waiting list.
I agree that many people do not know about the choices that are available. Tax credits and scholarships are definitely good suggestions that your articles touches on. Tax credits are kind of like school vouchers but people feel they are better because it is not money going directly to schools from the government. People are against these ideas though just because they want to believe that there is nothing wrong with the public school system and are scared that it will lead to them disappearing altogether. Something should be done to give parents choice for their children but it is hard when there are many people that are trying to build up public schools but are only helping in certain areas.
I agree that school choice is very important. Tax credits and scholarships which were key points in your article are definitely great ways of putting choice back into the hands of the parents. Tax credits are just like voucher programs but people are more comfortable with them because they do not directly give schools money from the government. Unfortunately many people are worried this will lead to public schools falling apart so they are fighting to keep these ways for choice to a minimum. Parents need to have the right to choose where their children go to school but i think it is going to be a hard and difficult fight to make that possible for families that do not have the money to make it happen.
Comment on the points made in the readings and some of the discussion from class.
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