schooling
I was reading a post by David of Raising Chooks in which he was describing the various secondary school choices for his older son, Senior Chef. I was trying and failing to contain my envy, given the status of the local schools in the Nation's Capital (TM). Our choices are:
Choice 1 is not great. The local elementary school (pre-Kindergarten / age 5 through Sixth Grade / age 11 or so) is good for a DC public school. However, it has 1 PE teacher, 1 Music teacher, and 1 art teacher, for the whole school. And these positions are funded directly by contributions from the parents. Woe betide anyone who goes to a public school in a poor neighbourhood.
Choice 2 might be fine, but you're at the mercy of location and selection schemes. They tend to be more popular in the neighbourhoods where the schools are profoundly failing, or where there's a large enough cluster of special interest -- e.g. professionals who want bilingual education for their children.
Choice 3: This makes my blood boil. Congressional Republicans are "testing" a voucher program wherein parents can apply for vouchers to be used to offset private school fees. In practice, the only schools with the right pricing and capacity for extra students tend to be church schools, so effectively it's a subsidy for religious organizations to proselytize. However, it's a program that's popular with parents in areas that have persistently failing schools and who don't want to see their children get dragged down, and it's popular with Republicans who are looking for something to break African American voters away from the Democratic Party. Regardless of ideological bent, I doubt we qualify for a voucher and I'm damned if I'm sending my children to a religious school (intentional pun).
Choice 4: There are some really very good private schools locally, as opposed to private schools that are dumping grounds for the problem children of the affluent. However, the "bargain" private schools not affiliated with churches cost $15,000 / year / student. The average cost is closer to $23,000 / year / student. Patently this not going to be our path forward...
So that's why, as I think I have hinted in prior posts, we're thinking about Choice 5: move to a better school district. But there's something really pathetic about the fact that this is the situation: good education is almost solely a function of ability to pay. Whether you're an idealist who wants a well-educated and thoughtful electorate, or a pragmatist who recognizes the importance of a well-educated and / or well-trained workforce for long term economic performance, this isn't satisfactory. But I can guarantee you that I'll be a hypocrite and sell out, so as to ensure that my kids don't go to some crappo school for the sake of my principles.
Postscript: David included a link to this article from The Guardian about secondary school selection in England, where "reform" for "choice" seems to have introduced the worst elements of market mechanisms to go along with failing central delivery models. Well done, if only for making me feel a little better about our quandary...
- Local public schools, administered by the DC Public Schools
- Local charter schools, funded by the DC public school system, but independently operated
- Local private schools, partially funded by a trial voucher system
- Local private schools, funded by us.
Choice 1 is not great. The local elementary school (pre-Kindergarten / age 5 through Sixth Grade / age 11 or so) is good for a DC public school. However, it has 1 PE teacher, 1 Music teacher, and 1 art teacher, for the whole school. And these positions are funded directly by contributions from the parents. Woe betide anyone who goes to a public school in a poor neighbourhood.
Choice 2 might be fine, but you're at the mercy of location and selection schemes. They tend to be more popular in the neighbourhoods where the schools are profoundly failing, or where there's a large enough cluster of special interest -- e.g. professionals who want bilingual education for their children.
Choice 3: This makes my blood boil. Congressional Republicans are "testing" a voucher program wherein parents can apply for vouchers to be used to offset private school fees. In practice, the only schools with the right pricing and capacity for extra students tend to be church schools, so effectively it's a subsidy for religious organizations to proselytize. However, it's a program that's popular with parents in areas that have persistently failing schools and who don't want to see their children get dragged down, and it's popular with Republicans who are looking for something to break African American voters away from the Democratic Party. Regardless of ideological bent, I doubt we qualify for a voucher and I'm damned if I'm sending my children to a religious school (intentional pun).
Choice 4: There are some really very good private schools locally, as opposed to private schools that are dumping grounds for the problem children of the affluent. However, the "bargain" private schools not affiliated with churches cost $15,000 / year / student. The average cost is closer to $23,000 / year / student. Patently this not going to be our path forward...
So that's why, as I think I have hinted in prior posts, we're thinking about Choice 5: move to a better school district. But there's something really pathetic about the fact that this is the situation: good education is almost solely a function of ability to pay. Whether you're an idealist who wants a well-educated and thoughtful electorate, or a pragmatist who recognizes the importance of a well-educated and / or well-trained workforce for long term economic performance, this isn't satisfactory. But I can guarantee you that I'll be a hypocrite and sell out, so as to ensure that my kids don't go to some crappo school for the sake of my principles.
Postscript: David included a link to this article from The Guardian about secondary school selection in England, where "reform" for "choice" seems to have introduced the worst elements of market mechanisms to go along with failing central delivery models. Well done, if only for making me feel a little better about our quandary...
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