Charter Schools vs Public Schools

Choice of Schooling

I think it is important to have a choice of schooling especially, as Bill Moyers points out, the nation lurches towards an oligarchy in which the country’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, while decisions are shaped and made by a small handful of powerful elites. If these people control everything, their agenda will very likely inform the type of schooling that is provided to young people. If parents do not want their children to be educated according to the agenda of the oligarchy, they should have the option of providing alternative schooling, such as homeschooling, charter schools, and so on.

I would personally favor homeschooling because I like to be in control of education myself, but having time for it can be difficult if you are already working full time, so charter schools would be another option. Finding a school that is safe where the risk of school violence is minimal would be a top concern too. Today, there are far too many shootings at schools across the nation for me to feel safe about sending kids to schools for an education. This is probably one reason why so many parents want to have their kids in charter schools, as is shown on Chris Mathews’ show Hardball (“Charter School Debate Heats Up”). As Schaefer points out in Chapter 13, schools are a way of maintaining social control, and if a parent or community is against the type of control that the government and the ruling elite want to effect, then a charter school or home school just seems like the best
option.

I think that schools should be reformed at the local level, as this puts more power and control at the grassroots level and takes it away from the hands of the centralized planners who are far removed from the action and do not have a good assessment of what communities and families want their children to learn and what teachers at the local level have to offer. Planning a national curriculum puts a lot of pressure on local schools to perform in ways that they are not really well situated to perform. Letting the local level administrators oversee schools in their own way might make it harder on children who move from one part of the country to another, but in reality this seems like the best way to operate a school as it puts the power in the hands of the community, which is where it should be since they are the biggest stakeholders.

I do not think that the federal government should be in charge of the reform of schools because the federal government simply represents the elites, who are identified by Bill Moyers as ruling the nation and having all the wealth. These people have an interest in teaching a very specific type of education that is not really oriented towards providing students with a perspective of challenging the elites’ power and control. Instead they are taught a version of reality in which they will play a very specific role—a menial, servile role where they are subjected to the will of the ruling class and are taught not to question this role at all.
That is what the federal government does when it oversees the education. As Paul Friere notes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, students must be willing to rise up against their oppressors if they ever want to effect real change. The way they do this in public schools is through violence, and that is not a good or effective solution. Students need to learn of ways that they can challenge the establishment and assert themselves in unison. And that is why I would say that the best option for schooling is either a network of home schooling or a charter school where students and teachers can be free of oversight from the centralized planners.

Works Cited

“Charter School Debate Heats Up.” Hardball, http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/charter-school-debate-heats-up-in-nyc-183674435661

Freire, Paul. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NY: Continuum, 2000.

Moyers, Bill. “Bill Moyers Essay: America’s Mad Dash Toward Oligarchy.” Moyers & Company, 2014. https://billmoyers.com/2014/04/18/bill-moyers-on-americas-mad-dash-toward-oligarchy/

Schaefer PPT. Chapter 13.