Do Suburban Schools Produce Better Educated Students?
- on 11.11.07
- Fund The Child, Funding Reform, General
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Do suburban schools produce better educated students? According to most parents they do. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that a study by the Pacific Research Institute shows that suburban schools are Worse Than You Think (Hat tip: Extreme Wisdom) [Emphasis mine].
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Conventional wisdom holds that upscale communities tend to have “good†schools, and parents often buy homes in expensive neighborhoods so their kids have a shot at a decent public education. But the PRI study, which focused on California, found that in nearly 300 schools in middle-class and affluent neighborhoods, “less than half of the students in at least one grade level performed at proficiency in state math and English tests.†Schools serving middle-income kids are also doing a poor job of preparing them for higher education. Some 60% of freshmen in the California State University system need remedial courses. And it’s not because they grew up in Watts. At Dos Pueblos High School in ritzy Santa Barbara, only 28% of high school juniors tested college-ready for English in 2006, slightly better than the 23% of students who did so at San Marin High School in Marin County, where the median home price recently hit $1 million. “Many middle-class parents don’t think they have a stake in the school-choice debate,” says Lance Izumi, the lead author of the study, in an interview. “They assume their schools are doing better than they are.” In reality, these families would benefit from vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and other educational options as surely as the inner-city single mom. And the competitive pressure would help make the surrounding public schools better. “When you show people in these communities how their schools aren’t doing so well, how they’re not getting the bang for their buck,” says Mr. Izumi, “they can begin to see how the debate over school choice affects them, too.” |
As I have written many times before, the Public Government School Monopoly is not properly educating our children. They are a government bureaucracy that is bloated and self-serving. Yes, there are some very good teachers within the system, and yet they cannot overcome the weight of a government sanctioned monopoly that is more intent on self preservation than actual education. You can see this everyday when the teachers unions and other state sanctioned school organizations attempt to thwart charter schools, vouchers, and any measure that would hold them accountable in how they educate our children.
As this article rightly points out, school choice is not just a problem for the inner city children, it is a problem for all children. Education is being dumbed down to hide the effects of poor curriculum like Everyday Math and Whole Language. Public schools today are only providing us a higher priced education with ever decreasing standards and stagnant educational outcomes.
There is a simple solution to this problem of poor education. This solution is to empower parents by funding the child. Below is the prescription for a better educated populace:
- Public – in or out of current district boundary
- Private
- Charter
