Marc YachtIn all fairness, my defense of public education must consider the darker side of some public schools. Many parents choose homeschooling and others send their children to charter schools or use vouchers to send them to private schools.
Now with the expansion of voucher credits and the push for additional charter schools, one has to ask, “Why are parents choosing alternatives to public education?”
The shift away from public schools damages school budgets as students choosing alternatives take their allocated dollars with them. The growth of alternative tax-supported schools reduces the meager resources for public schools.
Studies show that Florida neither public schools nor tax-supported alternatives have enough money. At great cost to public education, over 253 charter schools have closed in Florida since the state approved them. Most closed because they were broke.
Florida’s Board of Education has often protected troubled charter schools despite concerns expressed by local school boards. Politics play a large part in shoring up charter schools and voucher credits, but other factors must be understood. Some parents have valid arguments for trying alternatives to public education.
Several issues are undermining public-school confidence. But one problem looms larger than salaries, resources, classroom size, or materials. And officials’ political correctness contributes to this quandary.
Because of this problem, parents have taken their children out of public school, teachers have quit or taken early retirement, and taxpayers have had to pay to repair vandalism, erect barricades and install kick plates.
The challenge is that there are too many undisciplined and destructive children in some public schools. For example, students blatantly use cell phones during class, a teacher told me. Occasionally the caller is the child’s parent.
School maintenance workers have placed kick boards over exposed plumbing because unruly students damage unprotected plumbing. Students challenge teachers because they know teachers have few options to effectively discipline them.
Rowdy students may come from poor or dysfunctional families but that is not always the case. Too often parents offer little support. Teachers are frustrated when their evaluations are based on the test scores of such defiant students.
Many parents simply don’t want to expose their children to such chaos. Charter schools and private schools can expel troublesome students; public schools have limited tools to compel a student to behave. If public schools are to regain the confidence of the community, administrators must be given the power to regain control.
My three children went to quality Pasco County public schools. They received excellent educations and all became successful graduate students. When effective public school policy can assure order, skilled teachers can do great work. When a school is chaotic, even the best teachers are doomed to fail. Suggesting that they are not performing adequately based on standardized tests ignores the teaching environment. Accountability wonks have it wrong.
The problems in public schools must be defined properly to find solutions. Otherwise, alternative forms of education will grow, draining even more money from our beleaguered public schools.
Dr. Marc Yacht is a retired physician living in Hudson, Fla. This column is courtesy of Context Florida.
