WRAL News Blog: Charter School Reform: Fightin' words (My Response)

Please read the story at the link provided before reading the rest of this.
http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/9164163/

It is moments like this that really make me mad at what has happened to America.  Essentially the NC Senate was discussing a bill to provide for more charter schools across North Carolina.  This is an idea that I whole-heartedly support.  I believe most people in this state and around the country support it. Those that don't support it generally do so for one of a few reasons:

1. Charter schools and Magnet schools draw from the same talent pool as regular public schools (usually drawing the best available)
2. Some charter and magnet schools, particularly in the first years of implementation, do poor jobs of tailoring their records/curriculum to typical college acceptance procedures
3. Charter and Magnet schools, as they don't have as wide a variety of students, don't have the overhead (variety of extracurriculars, physical education, athletics, special needs, summer school, transportation, low-income support services) that regular public schools have
4. Charter schools pull money from the same education fund as regular schools, thereby taking from the available funding proportionately but holding a disproportionate burden.

It is a combination of these last two reasons that NC Senator Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford) is upset with the expansion of charter schools in North Carolina.  I can understand her concerns, which likely stem from a number of public schools in her county that are losing funding for needed programs to schools which serve smaller populations.  What I do not understand and cannot stomach are the underpinnings of her concern.  In many ways they are the underpinnings of entitlement and liberalism, but in others it is just a dependent mentality.

Her response was:
"I’m saddened by the fact that I don’t think we really care about education for everybody, but we care about education for those of us who can make sure our kids get it. And about the others, who will end up in poor public schools, that will have to share their funds since we’re not giving any extra money, then we don’t care about those children, wherever they end up on the streets or wherever. It does not appear – regardless of what you’re saying, I don’t think you care."


What this statement says to me is that there are parents who believe it is the government's responsibility to provide subsidy AND access to the best in education. 

The subsidy is believed to be necessary because it goes along with a belief that there are people who can not make a better life for themselves.  There are too many people trying to get into this country (by plane, by boat, by inner tube, by stowing themselves into the trunks of cars) that come here because they hold the exact opposite belief.  This country is still rated in the top 5% of countries that are easiest to do business.  There are more distinct industries in this country than in any other.  There are more top-notch education opportunities here than in the next 10 countries combined.  Providing the opportunity to make a better life for one's self is what we do.  In this country we have moved South, then West, then back East, then North, then back South to go where the opportunities are.  As a nation we pioneer and trailblaze and innovate.  Now, we whine and complain that someone isn't giving us what other people have earned.  Forget subsidizing poverty, if you want to do better for yourself and for your kids...go and get it!

Next is the access.  This is both a local and a national issue.  The belief that an overall "better performing" school is better for any child is ludicrous.  There are Rhodes Scholars that come from "poor performing" schools.  There are high school and college drop outs, not to mention deadbeats, that come from the best schools in the world.  The things that matter the most in whether or not a child succeeds in school have always been the same...child's effort, family/community influence, and resources.  This argument suggest that resources are unequal.  The argument isn't really an argument as much as it is a statement of fact.  The issue is that the people who make this argument are looking at neither global competition nor history. 

As a country, there are more resources for children and education now than there have ever been in the history of the world.  There are public libraries with computers with internet for FREE.  There are educational television shows on broadcast television for FREE.  There are tutoring services available in most parts of the country that will offer extra help and teaching to any child that will show up.  There are church and civic organizations that put together educational, social, artistic and athletic activities for the whole family the whole year long.  As a family living in America, whether or not you are a citizen, there are resources here that people around the globe would swim an ocean for.  Oh, and many of those families live on so much less than we do.  Many of those families don't have access to educational resources outside of school.  Many of those children go to schools that are insufficiently funded.  Many of those children go hungry, dirty, and work jobs.  Oh, and many of those children are KICKING OUR ASSES in educational attainment.  We aren't failing to achieve because we have insufficient resources.  We are failing to achieve because we have too many resources.  We have become fat, dumb and lazy.  The very last thing that we need is to extend more entitlements and subsidies to people who don't want to do what is needed to get ahead.  We're so busy trying to fix the weakest links that we are weakening the whole chain.