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Education – Public Vs. Private

April 21st, 2010



Another continuing battle in the world of education and politics is public versus private education. The arguments for and against each are compelling. This is another one of those debates where there is no winner or loser, right or wrong, though there are those who disagree. We’ll present each side of the argument without taking one side or the other.

The obvious arguments for a private education is the quality of that education itself, or at least so the supporters say. Supposedly, a child who goes to a private school gets better teachers, newer books, individualized attention, smaller classes and the so called better class of person to share his pencil case with. The person who goes to a private school doesn’t have to worry about being picked on by bullies. Private schools are simply the ideal utopia for your young child.

The arguments for public education are not as obvious, especially with all the bad press that most public schools get. But one thing that most people don’t realize about public schools that is not true about private schools is that a teacher must be certified by the local educational association. This is not true about private schools. So while the general theory is that you will get a better quality of teacher in a private school simply because of the nature of the school itself, this is not necessarily true.

But the biggest argument for public education really comes down to money and the community. Unfortunately, the money that is allocated to a public school is based on the attendance of that school. If that majority of students in the area go to private schools then the attendance at public schools drops which causes a drop in their funding. This doesn’t just affect the school system itself but the community as well. The less money the schools get, the less money the community gets. What then happens is that the children who go to the public schools don’t get the education that they are entitled to because they don’t have enough money.

This leaves the parents of the child about to attend school with a difficult decision to make and that’s only if they are even aware of this problem. And that is where the problem itself begins. Parents are not informed. They think that sending their children to private schools doesn’t affect them any more than just the money they have to pay for their education itself. In the process of doing this they are taking money away from their community and ultimately lowering the standard of living in the community.

For everything in life there is always a trade off. The debate between public and private education will continue, with both sides fighting hard to get their share of the pie; public schools fighting for more funding and private schools fighting for vouchers so that more kids can afford to go to private schools. The truth is, until these two institutions can find a way to coexist with each other, there will be no winner in this war.

By: Michael Russell

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Education Today

April 17th, 2010



Let’s start with a subject near and dear to our hearts. That is the education of our young people. It seems that the American youth have fallen far behind the rest of the world in education. This is a sorry state of affairs from the greatest, richest most powerful country of the world. While children in Europe can speak at the very least two languages, American youth have trouble reading and writing English. Instead of setting high standards of education to insure that we produce the next generation of world leaders, we have dumbed-down our educational standards.

So just where does Mr. Obama stand on education. His website states “Barack Obama puts children first investing in early childhood education, making sure our schools are adequately funded and led by high-quality teachers, and reforming No Child Left Behind.” In the web site they write about the Zero to Five plan, starting education in infancy and moving toward a voluntary universal pre-school. They also speak of addressing the drop out crisis by obtaining more funding for the school districts to start personal academic plans and teaching teams. There is also vague talk of improving teachers through a system of education, and rewards.

Sounds great, but let’s take a reality check. On 11/18/08 Mrs. Obama enrolled the girls in a prestigious private school in the DC area. The Obama girls will not be taking advantage of the public education offered by the DC school district. That kind of school is OK for the people, but not for the Obama’s. Now we understand that security logistics might be challenging, so we may be forced to concede on this one if it were not for a statement printed in the New York Sun of Feb. 25, 2008. On the subject of school vouchers the Obama campaign released statement which stated, “Senator Obama has always been a critic of vouchers. Throughout his career, he has voted against voucher proposals and voiced concern for siphoning off resources from our public schools.”

So it would appear that Mr. Obama wants to try to put Band-Aids on a sinking ship called American education-just don’t aspire to send your kids to school with his girls, unless, of course you can afford it. Now I do not know where your little corner of the world is going with education, but down here in sunny Florida things is not looking real good. Manatee County is considering cutting ANOTHER $6.3M from the school operating budget, with more to come, and that is on top of the $21.4M that was cut even before the school year started. That looks pretty dismal for our kids. A litter further north in Pinellas county the school district is cutting $21M this year and another $40M next year. They will be closing 5 elementary schools and shifting the students to other neighborhood schools.Mr. Obama… I think you need a bigger band-aide.

Come on America, wake up-our children are our future, we need to educate them. Call Washington, write to your leaders, and let them know that this state of affairs is unacceptable. We need to take action now. We need to be aware of where the government is spending OUR MONEY. Remember, it is our money. Remember the war that started over “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION”. It is time for us all to speak up.

Theo

By: Peter Theophilopoulos

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Public Schools – Bad Education, Year After Year?

April 14th, 2010



If a store sells inferior products or a business gives bad service, most customers will not come back and that store or business will eventually go bankrupt. If public schools sell bad education, year after year, why don’t they go bankrupt? Why aren’t they shut down?

The answer is government compulsion. In private schools, if the school does a bad job educating children, parents will soon take their child out of that school. If enough parents take their kids out of the school, that school will go bankrupt. A private school depends on the voluntary consent and tuition payments of its parent-customers to stay in business.

Unlike private schools, public schools are a government-controlled education system that stays in business through naked compulsion. Local governments pass laws that give school authorities near-monopoly powers over our children’s education. Compulsory-attendance laws force children to go to these schools. School taxes force parents to pay for these schools. Unlike private schools, public schools rarely go out of business, no matter how bad they are, because they get their “customers” and their money by force.

Compulsion rears its ugly head in our public schools in many other ways. State teacher licensing laws prevent excellent but unlicensed educators or outside experts from teaching in the schools. Tenure laws make it almost impossible for school boards to fire incompetent or even mediocre teachers or principals.

Local governments force children to go to public schools for six to eight hours a day, five days a week for up to twelve years, even though these children might hate public school. School authorities force children to study subjects that school authorities dictate, even though children might find these subjects boring or meaningless. Public schools also force parents to accept teachers that parents might not like or think are competent.

Many public schools force children to learn math and reading with teaching methods that can cripple children’s math and reading abilities. Public schools often subject children to values or sex-education classes that parents object to. The list goes on and on.

Like tax-supported prisons, public schools don’t shut down because the whole system rests on a foundation of naked force. Take away compulsory-attendance laws and compulsory school taxes and it’s highly likely that most public schools would “go out of business.”

But parents don’t have to wait for the highly unlikely event of public schools going out of business in their lifetime. Luckily, parents in America, unlike those in Germany or many other countries, have the right to homeschool their children. Parents can also take advantage of new, low-cost education options available to them right now, such as low-cost Internet private schools. I go into detail about these new education options in my book, “Public Schools, Public Menace.”

By: Joel Turtel

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