Smoky Mountains Sunrise

Saturday, July 19, 2008

A Response To Ross Shealy


Once again the author of an odious South Carolina blog has taken it upon himself to vet nominees for the Education Oversight Committee. Mr. Ross Shealy has reported that its newest member, Julie Hershey, once signed a petition of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State.

Having coordinated a New Jersey statewide campaign for public school reform and parental choice in education, I have had some experience with the Alliance and its founder, Mr. Marshall Fritz.
He is an engaging, affable, persuasive and persistent man, who makes the compelling argument that just as Americans would never condone government ownership of the print or broadcast media because of their influence over what Americans think, so too should government not control the very formation and intellectual development of children during the twelve most formative years of their lives. It is a powerful argument that Mr. Fritz delivers with the zeal of an evangelist.

In our statewide campaign for the right of parents to seek out the schools they believe can best serve the way their children learn, we argued that competition and an array of schools catering to the diverse ways children learn, would be a vast improvement on the “one-size-fits-all” schools that are typical of most public school districts.
The few places that have actually experimented with choice in education have demonstrated that school choice does improve public schools. Eighteen years after the Milwaukee school choice program was implemented, Milwaukee has an array of high quality public schools that serve more students than they did before parents were free to walk away. Parents are eager to support their neighborhood schools, provided they work.

Nevertheless, while we were making the argument that school choice improves public education, we began to notice that some of our most important coalition members had also signed Mr. Fritz’ petition, undercutting our claims that the campaign was not only in the best interest of children, but also in the best interest of quality public schools.
When we contacted these petition “signers” we found again and again, that our coalition leaders had a cordial conversation with Mr. Fritz, had found that they agreed with many of the persuasive arguments he makes, but were not ready to abandon public schools and were surprised to learn that their names had been added to his list of petition signers. Like Mrs. Hershey and Mrs. Iacovelli before her, many requested that their names be removed.

In a state that ranks among the last in SAT scores, and where approximately half of all students entering high school drop out, Mr.
Shealy should be pleased that the Education Oversight Committee includes public servants like Mrs. Hershey, those who think outside the box and want radical improvements to a system that is failing so many South Carolina children. Does Mr. Shealy really want to subject his own children to a system where they will have a fifty percent chance of graduating? Will he want them to know that he stood in the doorway, blocked parents seeking something better for their children, and defended a system that has thwarted the potential and ruined the lives of so many millions of students?


5 comments:

Anthony Palmer, Ph.D. said...

I personally believe private schools are private for a reason. Freedom to associate or not associate with Group X or Y would be infringed by giving people vouchers.

And private schools have strict entrance requirements in terms of aptitude, character, and test scores. Would these students from underperforming public schools have the credentials necessary for entry? If they don't, then they would be relegated to the same schools that failed them to begin with.

School choice seems like a good idea on its face, but I think it would ultimately create more problems than it solves.

www.theseventen.com

Anonymous said...

Anthony,

You might be interested to know that there are several schools around the state specifically set up to educate children in low-income, primarily minority areas. Many of the children in these schools were ignored and cast aside in the failing public schools they attended.These private schools have been able to meet their needs and help them realize their full potential. Colonial Christian School in West Columbia is a fine example. Caper's Preparatory Christian Academy on John's Island is another. I encourage you to visit them and hear some of the students' stories if you get the chance.

Anonymous said...

"but were not ready to abandon public schools and were surprised to learn that their names had been added to his list of petition signers. Like Mrs. Hershey and Mrs. Iacovelli before her, many requested that their names be removed...." right after it became public what there agenda was. These people are not even for 'fixing' public education by attaining state funding for private schools. They want to end public education all together, Why? I can only guess because it has been the back bone of everything from U.S. economic prosperity to securing of liberty for more Americans across the board than in just about any other country in the world - and let's face it, that offends some people - the idea that we, as a nation, have tried to educate everybody instead of just an entitled few.

Daniel J. Cassidy said...

It appears that "great post" is unaware of the Third International Math and Science Survey which ranks the United States below more than twenty industrialized nations, all of which offer universal education.

I would also be willing to bet that with its lack of punctuation, run-on sentence, the use of "there" instead of "their," and "back bone" in place of "backbone," the previous comment was left by a public school teacher.

Anonymous said...

While the dialogue on school choice has probably helped public school educators take a fresh look at their methods, some of the "facts" that are bounced about are not the appropriate indicators of whether public schools are doing a good job. SAT scores should not be used as an indicator because not all states use the SAT as extensively as the southeastern schools and therefore does not compare "apples to apples".
The demographics from one region to another also varies greatly. Public schools in areas with the most diverse populations in terms of nationalities and culture seem to struggle more. South Carolina falls into that category.
The high school graduation statistic only speaks to graduating after four years of high school. Students who take longer than that aren't counted as graduated. South Carolina actually has about 75% of its adult population with high school diplomas - still not enough, but a far cry from the 50% that is bounced about so much. Is it more important that a student graduate in the least amount of time or more important to work with a student who might have more to overcome that others?
South Carolina has number of challenges to overcome and public education is only part of the equation that needs to be addressed. Students in homes with both parents do better in school than those in homes with only one parent. Students whose fathers are active in their children's education do better than students in two parent homes where the father is not active.
All of this political energy, money, and lawmaking not to mention infighting and blame-shifting does nothing to give individuals a heart change in their individual responsibilities toward their families. If all these political organizations can't shift from their selfish ambitions and start serving South Carolina's population and the true needs, they might as well point their fingers at themselves.