I’m trying to figure out how to write this without offending just about every person I care about. Because this isn’t just about pulling your kids out of public school and sending them to a charter school. It’s about fear of public schools in general. It’s about fear. It’s about being afraid of what your kids are being taught in public schools, and pulling them out to go to a private school. Or homeschooling. And just in case you feel like I’m leaving you out, “People Who Moved To A Richer, Whiter County Because Of The Perception That They Have Better Schools,” I’m talking to you too.
If this post is already making you feel like this, hold on for just a little bit.
Now, before you start writing your angry response, I should say that I am aware that there are all kinds of good reasons to make a change in your child’s schooling. There are all kinds of families out there who are trying to tailor their kids’ educations to each individual child’s learning style. We know families who have some kids in public schools, some at private, some being homeschooled…. I get it. I’m not saying that you are a bad parent if you make sacrifices to move to the suburbs because of the school system. There are even good reasons to send your child to a charter school. I have friends who work for charter schools, I have other friends who have decided to send their kids to a charter school–I promise, I get it. I’m just going to try to explain a few reason why me and my family are proud to keep our kids in our lovely, somewhat-failing school district.
1) THE PLAYING FIELD ISN’T EVEN/AN IMBALANCE OF ASSETS
I went to a Christian school my whole life. My mom made huge sacrifices to provide a Christian education for me, and as far as I was concerned, I was going to the best school. Once a year, the paper would publish the standardized test scores for the different area schools. And our little school would always top the list. But there were a few assets that the kids at our school had that a lot of the kids at public schools DIDN’T have. Here are a few:
- We had parents who were so invested in our educations that they were willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on something that is offered for free. If parents are willing to spend $20 on bottles of water, chances are pretty good their kids are going to be well-hydrated.
- We had parents that were ABLE to pay thousands and thousands of dollars on our schooling. In other words, having actual assets is a significant asset to a child’s education. In many cases, being able to afford something like this means that there are two parents at home…. That’s worth something.
- Even that pride was an asset. Feeling like you are “better than that” often leads to acting and even performing like you are “better than that.” Which is something that people might be willing to pay for, but it begs the question, “What about all the kids in the schools that AREN’T expected to do well?”
Don’t feel TOO good about your victory…. This might have been the field you were playing on.
And these same assets apply to kids whose parents are moving to the richer counties as well. Having parents who can afford to live in the more expensive neighborhoods is an asset most kids don’t have. And you don’t see a whole lot of single moms deciding to homeschool their kids either. A lot of parents look at the cost of private school, compare it with the higher housing costs, and decide to move away and get that money back when they sell their house. And again, that may make sense for one family, but it pulls yet another family that cares away from a school that is perceived as “lesser.” Maybe it wasn’t lesser until all those families moved away? Maybe it started being perceived as “lesser” when all “THOSE” people moved into the neighborhood…. If the makeup of a school consists only of families who cared enough about their child’s education to pull them out of their assigned schools, of course they are going to have some better test scores. Which brings me to my next point….
2) THE MYTH OF TEST SCORES
Every once in a while, people who are considering moving to the Nashville area ask questions about where they should be looking for houses, and a main consideration for where to live is how “successful” the school system is. Here is the thing about those scores: They are complete BS. There is a school down the road from our house where there are almost 30 different languages spoken. THIRTY! And you know what? Those kids take the same tests that the rest of the kids take. I’m a relatively smart guy, and I couldn’t pass an elementary standardized test that was given to me in Spanish…. And I have taken four years of Spanish!
Slow down….
How many of those immigrant families can afford to live in the rich neighborhoods and counties? How many of them have the skills necessary to apply for a charter school? How many of those parents are able to homeschool and teach their kids english? Most of these kids have parents who don’t speak any english at home…. And they are being given the same tests as the kids who have been speaking english their whole lives. They’re not getting home and getting help at home with their home work like my kids do…. In a lot of cases, they’re getting home and teaching their parents. And they’re able to do this because of dedicated teachers who did not abandon a difficult teaching environment. Or the kids there who desperately need good teachers. Which brings me to my next point….
3) A GOOD TEACHER IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN A GOOD SCHOOL
For my job, I see the insides of more schools than just about any other occupation I can think of. And although school climate is very important, I have seen so many example of crappy teachers who are teaching in “desirable” schools. My wife volunteers for the PTA, and she spends a lot of time in our kids’ school. Within a short period of time, it’s easy to tell which teachers go above and beyond. You can go to a terrific school, have a bad experience with a teacher, and come away thinking that it was the school that was lacking. And sometimes, it might just be a good teacher who was a bad fit for your child. A good teacher makes a world of difference–Someone who educates, but also someone who inspires, challenges, and prepares the learner for the real world. Which brings me to my next point….
4) CHARTER SCHOOLS DON’T PLAY BY THE SAME RULES
“I used to ‘sweat the small stuff,’ but now I basically just sweat vodka.”
Beyond the longer school day and the frequent removal of special subjects like art and music, there are other reasons to be skeptical about charter schools. A lot of charters have a discipline policy of “Sweat the small stuff,” but that way of doing things can actually be really harmful. As nice as it seems seeing kids in straight lines, not saying a single word while they are out on a field trip, this hyper-structured, almost militaristic, “Sweat the small stuff” way of doing things leaves kids floundering once they experience the freedom of college…. Much like the kids from the super-sheltered Christian families who ended up being the REALLY drunk kids in college. There’s a really good This American Life about this issue that you can listen to HERE.
Seems like the ones who have the “discipline problems” always seem to be the ones with the low test scores….
Also, when kids go to a charter school, the tax money allotted for that child goes with them. And statistics show that kids are getting kicked out of charters at much higher rates than public schools. This is one of the reasons there is an influx of charter school kids into public school just before it’s time for state testing. And [not so] coincidentally, these expunged kids are the same ones whose pre-tests show scores which aren’t predicted to meet the standards they advertise in order to sell the charters to parents. They cover this practice by saying the kids are “not living up to their high standards.” So basically, they are getting rid of the kids who are going to do poorly on the test in order to keep their numbers looking good. It’s a gross practice that many teachers in school systems effected by charters will tell you is widespread. And then worst of all, if those charters stop being profitable, they are outta here. You can READ HERE about what happened to a Michigan school system when the system was turned over to for-profit charters, and how those charters said “Buh bye” when there was no more money to be made.
“Is there any room for anyone else on those lifeboats, ladies?
The single greatest indicator of how well a child does in school is how involved that child’s parents are in their education. If all of the parents who actually care about their child’s education start abandoning ship, what do you think that does to the school? Our kids get a lot out of attending a school that is diverse. They are exposed to different languages and beliefs and customs, and that is a valuable thing. But it’s not just what our kids get out of it…. Those other kids that attend our school–They need our kids there. They need families like our who are invested in that community.
Those kids speaking English as a second language, those kids with parents who couldn’t care less about their child’s education, those kids with no other options–they NEED my kids at that school. There are some good reasons make changes in your child’s schooling, and honestly, there are some schools that I wouldn’t send my kids to. But before you pack up and move one county over or enroll you kids in one of the 18 new charter schools that have popped up, I hope you give some of what I have written some consideration. Here is another REALLY GOOD ARTICLE discussion this issue. And as I’m sure someone other than me has probably said before, “Ask not what your school can do for you…. Ask what you can do for your school.”
The Boeskool 
The one factor that is an excellent reason for choosing an educational path alternative to public school for my children was the reality of violence. We live in a city where school violence is a daily event in the public school system, and that had to be a factor for us. And while I understand there are many people who cannot afford the choice we could, we chose not to live in a gated community, not to buy things on credit, not to be members of clubs, gyms or other such organizations so that we could afford it. So, while I agree with the basis of your arguments, I think they were developed within a community context that is not universal.
I believe in the concept of public education and yet the quality, or more appropriately the lack thereof, of our community’s public education system was such that we chose not to exercise our option of white privilege guilt at the expense of our daughters’ education.
“I believe in the concept of public education and yet the quality, or more appropriately the lack thereof, of our community’s public education system was such that we chose not to exercise our option of white privilege guilt at the expense of our daughters’ education.”
– priceless
TL;DR version: “free markets are terrible.”
Two questions disguised as complications:
1) Yeah but: Public school quality is highly correlated with per capita income in individual school districts, right? To say there are some bad teachers in “good schools” and that standardized test scores don’t tell the whole story is not to deny that there are objectively much better / safer / richer public schools in “nicer” / safer / richer zip codes. Right?
2) Yeah but: Standardized scores are a poor measure when it comes to the full spectrum of a child’s educational experience. Agreed. But isn’t a better benchmark (for high schools) their actual placement rate? In a recent school zone shopping move to California I googled a decade’s worth of data on high school placement rates in the UC system (Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, etc) and made a decision from there. It quickly becomes clear that piles of schools simply aren’t preparing students for high caliber state schools. So individual kids have different experiences that don’t fit in the test data, but ultimately, it’s college placement data that parents should be looking at. RIght?
I mean, Right!?
Your points are spot-on. I agree 100%. I won’t criticize anyone’s decision for putting their child in private school or a Charter school, but I hope before people bash the public school system they realize we are the only country in the world who educates EVERYONE who comes through our door—whether you speak our language or not, whether you have special needs or not, whether you are wealthy or poor–What a tremendous responsibility! Taking all of those factors into account, public school teachers often get short-changed.
We are the only country in the world. . . except:
1. Sweden
2. New Zealand
3. France
4. UK
5. Spain
6. Germany
7. Palau
8. Monaco
I completely agree with you. Charter, magnet or private schools are an excellent option for parents who face violent or below standard school systems. However, in my case the public school is fairly graded and with few complains and there is a charter school next to our public school. In my case and to my point of view I don’t see a real need of changing my child to a charter where she can get the same education.
I do charter, home school and private. One of the key areas of concerns as i meet parents from all areas is the child has a learning delay some sever, many moderate and some mild. I live in one of the number 1 school districts in the US. But when it comes to special education and helping the delayed learner if its Dyslexia or Down Syndrome all regular public school systems are lost!! They are not up dated on the necessary training or have the time these kids need. creating more problems for the kids like bad grades, no friends, behaviors and hopelessness sometimes. This population is 25% of the whole average student body and i think this is why we are seeing such an increase parents looking for alternatives. When a school advertises 1-1 support and custom to your kid, every parents is going to be interested and it is free with charters. Same for social inverted kids…they feel out of place and are more comfortable in a smaller environment, but no matter where you go there is still not enough trained teachers and therapist to cover this population. I have therapist now that are clueless that im getting rid of in the school setting and I still have to pay out of pocket, because school are not hiring the right support BASED ON THE CHILDS TRUE DISABILITY. Do what is best for your child no matter what it looks like. I wish i had options as a kid.
In my opinion, having a gifted child, I would say most are lost in serving the other end of the spectrum too. This is why we homeschool.
No information. Just an article full of virtue signaling and feelings. I was really hoping for some INFORMATION based on fact, very disappointed. I’m so tired of all this propaganda and shaming people into guilt. I can only work within the confines of MY experience.
I used to teach school. I taught public. I taught private. I even ran a small school. I’ve been around. My oldest child attended two years of public school and then we homeschooled for two years. We figured we would look to find a school that was a better fit and I have zero qualms about doing so. I wish my own parents had thought to put me somewhere other than where I attended school. If you can do it, then do it. So both of my kids attended a charter last year. It was a nightmare. We have given up on schools. With homeschooling, the kids get to socialize with their peers far more than they ever did at school (because after co-op classes which we do 2-3 times per week), we typically hang out with the other families and the kids get to play uninterrupted for a few hours rather than 20 minutes. We use more rigorous curriculum than what they were using in the charter school which was supposed to cater to gifted students (my oldest is identified gifted and the youngest is advanced) and we move as fast as we want or as slow as we want. My oldest son just seems to devour whatever we give him and the younger son moves pretty quickly too. This means we have more time to do extras such as orchestra, Spanish, and even handwriting and cursive (which they don’t seem to do in school anymore). We still participate in Geography fairs and Science fairs. They still give presentations (they did more presentations as homeschoolers than they ever did while in school). We do intramural sports. We go skiing midweek twice a month in the winter and call it PE. Am I lucky to be able to do so? Hell yeah. Very lucky. However it wasn’t by mistake. Both my husband and I were very clear about not starting a family until we were financially able to live our life how we wanted to live it and part of that was not putting our kids in daycare. We never expected to homeschool, but we are loving it for the opportunities to connect with interesting families and to develop deep relationships with friends, loving it for the ability to do so many hands on projects, activities, and labs, loving that we have the freedom to change curriculum mid year if we decide we aren’t enjoying something, love it for the freedom to travel whenever we want (we took my kids to Puerto Rico last year because an opportunity popped up for us to go with most of the trip already paid for. I cleared it with the school and we did lots of educational things while there. Then we came home and they gave us a truancy letter :/). Anyway…if you have the ability to educate your child whatever way you think is best, do it. I am not interested in using my own children as a political statement about the inequalities in our school system. I hope it gets figured out, but I am not interested until it does.
Sounds like you have made an excellent learning experience for your children. While it’s hard to argue against giving your kids the best of everything, I fear that we as a society have put an inordinate amount of emphasis on our own personal desires, tastes and experiences. When we do things like pull out of public schools, claiming that what we are doing is “best for our family” I really feel that we are saying: We want “better” for ourselves than others. This is often at the expense of others. What if every white person in the US , when schools were integrated, said that they “wanted the best” for their children and pulled all their children out of public schools to home school or to start their own schools? (which btw is very much what happened here in the southeast) I have a problem with the notion that our kids need the perfect educational experience in order to thrive and have good lives. Many where I live choose private, charter or homeschooling bc they are so afraid of public education. I think this hurts the whole community. You may believe that your children are well socialized because they get to play with their peers as much as or more than traditionally schooled children. But what they do not get is much interaction with kids from families who don’t home school…or kids who come from broken families where the single mother has to work and cannot home school and so on. I went to private and public schools growing up. I can tell you that those of my peers who attended public school are by and large much more empathetic to the plight of the poor and disenfranchised in our communities. They have gone on to pursue degrees in social work, medicine, psychology and other fields that exist for the purpose of alleviating human suffering. They tend to be politically active and advocates for human rights and/or for social programs that do not directly benefit themselves. They tend to vote for those things that are not only in their own interests. I believe this is because they were not hidden from the children of families with two moms, families who practice other religions, who have purple hair or piercings, families torn apart by alcohol abuse, physical abuse , divorce, refugees and other “undesirables” from the community. They went to school with these kids- these kids were/are some of their friends. Their friends’ families became friends with their families. They saw the need society has for people to become advocates for others- that their purpose on earth is ultimately to serve others rather than merely pursue their own financial or personal success. Those of us who choose public school aren’t “using our children as a political statement” rather we are choosing to invest in our communities. We have seen first hand that not only our children but our neighbors’ children are better off.
My husband wanted to enroll my daughter in a charter school here in Logan Utah. Despite my gut instinct, I agreed. It has been the BIGGEST MISTAKE I have made as a parent! She is only in first grade and comes home with, on average, 2 hours of homework per night! At her last school ( a public school that I was very happy with) she was considered bright, had plenty of friends and was well behaved. Suddenly, at the charter school, they are telling me she is ill behaved, has almost no friends and is getting a D overall for first grade! Not to mention, she tells me she’s getting hit and kicked and bullied nearly every day! I have met with her teacher multiple times but apparently this school prefers to turn a blind eye to bullying. I don’t want to assume it’s because she is half African American at a predominantly white school but she said some of her classmates have made rude comments about her hair, skin tone and even her glasses. I met with her teacher a final time (giving them the benefit of the doubt) and have decided to pull her from this garbage charter school and put her back in the public school she actually liked. I will not send any of my children to a charter school again. We have learned the hard way. It’s terrible that the charter school will get the money from the state for her this year, despite the fact that it’s barely past October first.
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Dumb communist sjw bitch.
I know you mean well, but your bias towards charters keeps you from understanding the reality of today’s public school environment, at least in Texas. Texas charter schools are public schools, we serve higher percent of minors children, have higher percent of free and reduced lunch, so not get as much per child as an ISD (the other type of public school) partly because the tax dollar is left at the ISD from where the child lives/ would go to school.
This is easily proven. So please, let’s stop politicizing school, get w your politicians to do the same, and let’s focus on what really matters, and that is educating well rounded, empathetic kids who will be an asset to our future economy. Thanks
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My daughter started kindergarten last fall at a charter school in Michigan. My husband and I thought we we’re making the right decision, however we now know we were wrong! We’ve been educating our daughter since she could sit up by herself. My husband and I both have a college education and we are older parents. At the beginning of the kindergarten year we were so nervous sending our first child to school. We even sent her to school with a small tracking device and I’m glad we did! One of the first incidents was she got locked out of the school during recess! The teacher blamed it on my daughter. Next a book was introduced and read by the teacher titled “ tattle-tongue”. When my daughter got home I asked her about school and she told me about the book. I found the audio version and listened to it. My thoughts were why would the lesson from the book be taught at such an early age. My daughter was afraid to tell me anything all of a sudden. She’d struggle to tell me people were touching, hitting , and that the teacher was punishing her without my knowledge. When my daughter finally told me what was happening to her I notified the principal via email . The principal paraphrase the teachers words as if she was taking up for the teacher and believe such a poor childlike response to a serious situation . I was completely disappointed and to add insult to injury an office administrator call my husband and said I “thought Ms. B was y’all girl “ Long story short my daughter was placed in a public elementary school the next day. The weird thing is she hasn’t missed her old school and was happy her first day at her new school. I hadn’t seen my daughter that happy in a while.