Americans Flee Public Schools

M2RB:   Alice Cooper, live at Montreux

Well, we got no class

And, we got no principals 

And, we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

What's wrong with American public schools?  Take your pick.

By Walter Russell Mead

Something very strange is happening around the country: students are disappearing from America’s public schools.

The New York Times reports that many of the country’s largest school districts are rapidly losing students as parents lucky enough to have the choice switch their kids to private and charter schools. In the country’s largest school districts, public school enrollment is down by about 10 percent while charter school enrollment is up by more than 60 percent. This mass flight by newly empowered families is forcing tough choices on school districts:

Because school financing is often allocated on a per-pupil basis, plummeting enrollment can mean fewer teachers will be needed. But it can also affect the depth of a district’s curriculum, jeopardizing programs in foreign languages, music or art. [...]

Before the Mesa district closed Brimhall Junior High School this year, the school lost teachers in art, music and technology in part because of a declining student head count. That made it harder for the school, which faces competition from many charter schools, to attract students.

“Education has gotten to be almost a sales job,” said Susan Chard, who taught seventh grade math at Brimhall for 18 years. “You want to provide reasons for parents to bring their children to your school.”

Although the Times laments the fact that an increasingly competitive education environment is hurting traditional public schools, Via Meadia is more inclined to see this as a positive development. Competition is good. The pressure to compete for students (and their parents) by providing a higher quality education at a lower price is how you light a fire under people to improve the schools.

Of course, the bureaucracies want to respond by cutting services rather than administrative bloat and high overhead. Via Meadia suggestion: Try reinventing management as a way of saving money before cutting services. Don’t cut foreign language teachers and art class; cut cumbersome work rules, sweetheart purchase agreements, and thin out the layers of patronage appointees who divert resources away from teaching into paper pushing.

"When schoolchildren start paying union dues, that's when I'll start representing the interests of schoolchildren."

- The late Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers and the President of the United Federation of Teachers

"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.”

“And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

“This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay.”

- National Education Association General Counsel, Bob Chanin, in his farewell address

 

 School's Out"

Well, we got no choice

All the girls and boys
Makin' all that noise 

'Cause they found new toys

Well, we can't salute ya

Can't find a flag 

If that don't suit ya, that's a drag

School's out for summer school's out forever 

School's been blown to pieces

No more pencils

No more books 

No more teacher's dirty looks, yeah

Well, we got no class

And, we got no principals 

And, we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

School's out for summer school's out forever

School's been blown to pieces 

No more pencils

No more books

No more teacher's dirty looks, yeah

Out for summer

Out 'til fall 

We might not come back at all

School's out forever

School's out for summer
School's out with fever 

School's out completely