Unintended consequences of school choice
Parents want the best education for their children, but we must also work together to support what's best for our communities.
Many parents and educators may praise the innovation of charter schools, or the notion that private school can give their children a better opportunity. As governments support these efforts in the spirit of school choice, what are the unintended consequences that are not being considered? I write this article as a parent, as a product of public schools, a child of public school teachers, and a devoted community and relationship advocate.
The demise of the neighborhood
Identity is important, and the school you go to can be one of the first places that can tie back to defining where you grew up. The local stores that can can sponsor PTA events. The gathering for holiday events. We already have fewer reasons to see our neighbors, but the loss of a central neighborhood school can weaken the connection families have with their neighborhood. The more time we spend outside of our immediate neighborhood, the less attached we are to where we live. We should want to nurture a sense of pride in our town so we are more interested in improving it.
And what happens when we move neighborhoods? Previously, when families moved, you would enroll your child in a new school. However, now parents may opt to keep their kids in the same school. Parents maintain their hearts in one place while not fully embracing their new community.
Weaker relationship ties
The convenience of local friends for our kids matters. I live in a building zoned for an a-rated public school. And while there are other parents with kids, we almost all send our kids to different schools. My daughter has a handful of friends at school, but all of them are a ten minute drive, as opposed to living around the corner, or what could be on another floor.
And then there’s the convenience of local friends for parents, who are also in need of social connection. Creating bonds with our neighbors, watching our kids grow up together, supporting one another in times of need.
Relationships are key to mental health. Perhaps we would have less school violence if more families knew one another in the neighborhood. As the old adage goes, it takes a village.
Degrading education quality in certain schools
What happens when you siphon children from very engaged parents away from their locally designated public school? We have likely heard the expression, the quality of your kids education should not be determined by your zip code. School choice on the surface, may seem like a solution by allowing you to send your children to a better school outside your zip code. But what about for those parents who cannot be driving to another area to drop-off and pickup their children. What remains of the locally zoned school as the most involved parents simply opt to send their kids elsewhere. It’s a brain drain. And it’s a downward spiral that leaves us with an imbalance. As parents choose to send their kids elsewhere, it only exacerbates the other problems I already mentioned.
We should also have the concern of school funding… In Florida, where legislators approved vouchers for private schools, ‘these vouchers "will literally siphon money away" from public schools because it's all under the same education budget. Estimated annual costs for the program range from $209 million to $4 billion. Meanwhile, the state senate appropriations committee has only proposed an additional $1.2 billion to cover the expansion of the already $1.3 billion program. If the cost exceeds that amount, "dollars are coming out of the public school budget," Spar said.’ Read more on Business Insider
And then there’s the competition for teachers. Where will the new generation of teachers want to teach given the choice? There’s already a teacher shortage, and if we want public schools to improve, then we should be looking for solutions that recruit the best teachers and administrators to turnaround struggling schools rather than abandoning them.
Increased Traffic
Recently during school spring break in Miami, driving during what would have been rush hour on i95 seemed relatively mild. How many parents need to take a highway to pick up their kids? I used to walk home from my school starting in 3rd grade. How many kids can say that today? The more we encourage families to shuttle beyond 15 minutes to drop-off and pickup their kids, the extra strain we add to traffic, not to mention the lack of good school bus routes.
Final thoughts…
I think we as a society have a bigger choice to make. And thats if we want to double down on local education and fostering a sense of place for our children. Education will likely see a fair amount of disruption over the next 10 years, with virtual learning tools supplementing in-person education. And as we become more device dependent, the real life community that can be fostered by a local public school becomes all the more important.
So what are our choices if we are not happy with our local school? Write to your school board representative. Create a group of other local parents. Speak with members of the school’s PTA. I understand the difficult choice to make if your local school does not currently meet your standards. But we need to try to reverse the trend. And if your school is doing well and you think more locals should attend, spread the word with other parents.
Call me nostalgic, perhaps i just have fond memories of my childhood, where i could bike around town and recognize the homes of where my classmates lived. But I hope that I have convinced some of the readers that we have more to lose with school choice over what can be gained by increasing our investment in local public schools.