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
Posts Tagged ‘Public Education’
Education – Public Vs. Private
April 21st, 2010Major Issue in Education
February 17th, 2010
The major public-education issue today is money. How much money do we spend on education? Do we need to spend more? What do we need to spend it on? There have been studies that have proven that the number of dollars that we have spent on public education has not had a positive impact on student achievement. So what is the problem? The problem is that we continue to spend the money on programs that are directed toward the wrong philosophy. The latest initiative was President Bush’s “No student left behind.” In theory that sounds great. Obviously we do not want to leave any child behind. Politically speaking it is a great slogan and did a great deal to get President Bush elected. That within itself is one of the major issues. (problems) Education is a major issue in every political campaign. Politicians continue to come up with programs every four years that promise to solve pubic educations problems. While they may sound good they are designed more to get a politician elected than they are to actually helping public education.
The “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND” initiative for example, sounded real good. Not only did it take care of all students but it put accountability on schools that were not successful. Citizens today want to put the blame for the lack of success in American schools directly on the schools. The accountability sounded great to the American people. The problem is, what to do when you find out that you still do not have success. You can not close down every school that was not successful according to the No school left behind guidelines. While the program called for greater expectations of students, it does not give students any alternatives in case they are not successful. It also puts other school systems in a compromising and overcrowded state if you close down schools that are not successful on the standardized test.
So what do I resolve? I believe that we need to have alternatives for the individual students. I do not believe that we can continue to use the cookie cutter approach to public education. We can not continue to attempt to teach all students in the same manner in hopes that we will get the same results. We have great examples in Europe, China, and Japan. We compare our brightest to their brightest and come up short in math and science. We need to concentrate on individual students who have exhibited ability in math and science, and continue with their efforts, while providing other meaningful careers and professions to others.
More importantly we need to start teaching our students how to think, and solve problems. The key lies in teaching students how to think, not just to memorize a set of facts. The students who gain a love for life long learning and knows how to solve problems will go much further.
When it comes to the issue of health care, politicians have a plan that is directed by doctors, hospitals, and hospital administration. These are the real professionals who can make a difference in health care. The issue of education needs to be left up to the real professionals, teachers and administration, not politicians. The number of dollars spent on public education would then be worthy of the education they would get.
By: Bob Roach
