Public Schools Need Not Crash

We may need to tap into music, sports, video games and even some street talents to reach some students.

Do you ever wonder why they don’t make entire airplanes out of the same material they use to make the indestructible “black box?” It’s an old standup comic line that always gets a laugh and makes people pause to wonder, “Hey, why not?”

Physics, with a healthy cluster of common sense, makes the joke untenable as a life-saving measure. Yet it seems that our Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, (along with President Trump) believes private/charter schools are the “black box” that will save our K-12 students from a crash into hopeless futures.

Mrs. DeVos and her boss (both with a well-known lack of experience within public schools) have long pushed for a voucher-supported roll of the K-12 public school population into a private/charter school system. Problem is, just as with the black box and the aircraft, the nature of private schools prevents the same principles from working for all students.

For example, in charter schools, even if an open lottery is required, there are selective procedures applied to accepting the student body. Many kids who could use a better education are not raised in the family or under circumstances with the inclination, familiarity, time or means to be able to search out the best environments for their children. While Mrs. DeVos promotes better scores as evidence of their value, enrolling students from stronger family situations delivers better results for the charters.

Cutbacks in public school budgets handcuff teachers from the crowded traditional schools more than they do in the smaller charters. Moving students into better schools is obviously going to benefit some—but only while producing a larger divide between the best and worst schools that’s as wide as the chasm between the wealthy and those on any sort of assistance. The victims will not only be the children with the least means, but also society as a whole.