"No matter whether you are talking suburban, rural or even urban, sometimes the issues are the same," [Garden State Coalition of Schools executive director Betsy] Ginsburg said. "What is the impact on the students who are left behind in the traditional public schools?"
Just on its face, this is surely an indictment of the government’s monopolistic education establishment, a.k.a. “traditional public schools”; a blatant admission of their inferiority and failure. Why else would students who remain in the traditionals be considered “left behind?”
But that’s not the worst of it. There is something more sinister lurking in that rationalization against charters--an educational egalitarianism. The “left behind” argument basically implies that achievement is a zero-sum game; that the success of one student comes at the expense of the failure of another. This leads to the mindset in “the students who are left behind” that their own educational success is not tied to their own efforts but is instead dependent on bringing down the higher achievers; that opportunities for others for a better education must be crushed in order for “the students who are left behind” to have a chance; that all students must be mashed together so all can move along at the same pace regardless of individuality, with no one being allowed to excel much beyond the average.
This is a psychological war on self-esteem, the fuel that drives motivation to go after a successful and fulfilling life. This “left behind” argument orients the child toward others and away from himself, instilling in him a vested interest in the failure of others. What other result can one expect, when you’re essentially telling “the students who are left behind in the traditional public schools?” that his failure is all the fault of charter school students’ success? This is a prescription for envy and resentment, rather than admiration for and motivation to emulate, the higher achieving students. It’s a self-esteem killer, and thus a motivation-killer, that has to at some point result in hatred of achievement and achievers (the same envious mindset that underpins the “war on income inequality”).
This “left behind” argument against charters specifically and school choice more broadly is not about education or educational opportunity. It is not about lifting students. It is an undisguised attack on educational improvement and excellence. To what end? To preserve the monopolistic education status quo. It is devious and greedy.
All children have the capacity to excel educationally—that is, to become independent thinking lovers of learning, each to the extent of her abilities. To “excel” does not mean in relation to others, but in relation to the individual child’s unique potentialities. Not all students will reach their potential, whether because of the failing of the kid or the teacher or the curriculum or the educational philosophy or parental neglect. But that is not a problem that can be resolved by denying other children their opportunities; i.e., by educational egalitarianism. Success is not a zero sum game, and no child should ever be held back for the sake of others not being “left behind.” To suggest that any child should is a hateful moral abomination.
The war on charters and school choice is a war on educational excellence. Rather than pit child against child in a war on self-esteem, expand school choice to all children and all parents. There is nothing sacred about traditional public schools. Whether through tax credits or full, unrestricted Education Savings Accounts,* education tax dollars should follow the student, whose course is directed by the parent/guardian. If the traditional public schools can’t compete in the entrepreneurial environment, let them fold like any private enterprise that can’t draw customers voluntarily.
* [I support the complete separation of education and state, a free market. But as an interim solution, universal school choice within the context of the current education tax regime would be a huge improvement.]
Related Reading:
Are Parents Capable of Properly Educating Their Children in a Free Market? (See also comments below.)
Toward a Free Market in Education: School Vouchers or Tax Credits?
Newark's Successful Charter Schools Under Attack—for Being Successful
Education in a Free Society—C. Bradley Thompson for The Objective Standard
No comments:
Post a Comment