“One father summed it all rather neatly as to why he still preferred private schooling for his daughter rather than what was provided free in the public school: if you go to a market and are offered free fruit and vegetables, they will be rotten. If you want fresh fruit and vegetables, you have to pay for them.” – The Beautiful Tree
In 2020, parents were suddenly faced with a lack of educational options, when schools, fearing the spread of the Coronavirus, refused to reopen. In some cases, this drama dragged on for more than a year, with many vulnerable children slipping through the cracks. While parents struggled to help children navigate remote learning, more than 30 states are now considering options that would fund students directly rather than automatically bankrolling the public school system. In West Virginia, for example, 90 percent of students are now eligible for 100 percent of state funding to be used at their discretion, whether for private schools, homeschooling, or other educational expenses, giving parents much-needed control over how education is delivered in the years to come.
Teachers’ unions led the panic to keep children at home, and teachers out of the classroom. Cautioned not to post vacation pictures to their social media accounts during their too-risky-to-work time off, unions continue to place hurdles in the way of student learning. Never letting a crisis go to waste, LA teachers’ unions are now demanding free subsidized childcare for their own children before they agree to return to work. With homeschooling growing by leaps and bounds, parents continue to look for alternative educational opportunities outside the control of the public school system.
In James Tooley’s 2009 book, “The Beautiful Tree”, Tooley researches the phenomenon of private schooling for poor children in China, India, and countries in Africa. What he found was a staggering number of poor parents who had shunned free public schooling and opted for private education for their children, paid out of their own pockets. After receiving approval for widespread testing, Tooley then discovered that privately educated children in almost every setting outperformed their public school peers. Making private schools a viable option for more than just the affluent.
In many poor countries, public government schools were established to provide free education to the masses. But once built, poor children who initially joined, never went back. Inconveniently located for rural families, some schools were just too far away for children to attend. The biggest problems, however, were the lack of education and supervision provided by teachers and administrators. Raised in an entirely different social class, school officials didn’t show appropriate deference to the parents or the students they served. Teachers’ attendance was also often abysmal as they were paid whether they showed up or not, creating large and unfocused classrooms with an untenable student-to-teacher ratio.
In private schools, however, the parents had the final say. If the school didn’t perform to its standards, it would lose its fee. And although most teachers had no state training, and certainly no degrees, they outperformed their competition. Most teachers came from the community and personally knew the families they served. These local private schools, therefore, showed more interest in students and provided much-needed supervision and learning. Some even operated covertly to elude authorities. Most importantly, studies have proven that universal primary education was attained by these private educators, and not from the free public system.
Back in America, parents and private institutions continue to look for alternative education options for children. While charter schools have had enormous success in minority communities, targeted vouchers would also provide much-needed competition for low-income households.
Many eyes were opened during the fiasco of the education system during Coronavirus. As we transition from public control of the purse strings, parents will have greater opportunities to find a more reliable source for education. A real silver lining, brought on by a pandemic and an antiquated system that couldn’t rise to the occasion.
Comments