Education - Public Schools
- Aug 1, 2005 -
Dissatisfaction with public schools is nothing new. It does, however, seem to be spreading. This dissatisfaction has led to several alternative approaches to public education.
“The largest is homeschooling. In 1981 an estimated 10,000 students were being homeschooled. Estimates now run as high as 2 million. And there are those who say the trend is growing at about 15 percent a year. Most importantly, studies consistently show homeschooled students perform well academically and socially. Prestigious colleges and universities not only willingly accept such students but actively recruit them. This challenges the rhetoric about the necessity for teacher certification. This embarrassment also helps explain the antagonism to home schooling by ‘professional’ teachers.
“A second development is charter schools. There were none in 1991. Today there are nearly 3,000, enrolling more than 700,000 students. Some state charter school laws are extremely weak. Others, in states such as Arizona, California and Michigan, have resulted in the creation of hundreds of schools in each state. Some, like countless public schools, have problems. Unlike the traditional schools, however, charter schools with serious difficulties are likely to close. Still, their overall record is positive, and some have experienced success matched by few if any traditional schools.
“On a smaller scale there are scores of public and private voucher programs. They make it possible for tens of thousands of mostly low-income and minority parents and their children to exercise their constitutional right to educational self-determination.
“In total then, something like 8,000,000 students who could be in the public system are not in the public system. While that’s small compared to 48,000,000 public school students, it is still significant. Nor does it count the millions, if opinion polls can be believed, who would leave the public schools if they could afford to do so.”
David W. Kirkpatrick, Dissatisfaction with Public Schools Evident, (Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs), September 3, 2004
The Myrtle Point School District in Oregon is in serious financial condition. That is partly due to the fact that enrollment in the school district has declined seriously because jobs in the timber industry have drastically declined. Unofficially, the district administrators had encouraged teachers to ask some homeschoolers who were taking music or other classes in the school system to consider enrolling in public schools. When some parents complained, the effort was stopped.
With a projected $675,000 budget shortfall anticipated for next year, District Superintendent Robert Smith admitted that the district may have to declare bankruptcy. Parents in the district who homeschool say they do so for a reason. Some do it for religious reasons. Others say they don’t want their children facing the peer pressure and drugs that they fear are rampant in public schools. Many homeschool because they believe there are distinct advantages to education at home. None of them are likely to enroll their children in the public school system.
Julia Silverman, “District Seeking Funds,” (Arizona Central), April 3, 2005
When people were asked what would be the best way to improve kindergarten through 12th grade education today, Gallup poll got the following responses:
| Area | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Teaching | 28% |
| Quality teachers/better educated/more involvement/caring | 15% |
| Better pay for the teachers | 6% |
| Hire more teachers | 5% |
| More resources in the schools for teaching | 1% |
| Get rid of/abolish teachers’ unions or the NEA | 1% |
| Funding | 21% |
| Reduce number of children in classroom | 11% |
| Improve school funding | 7% |
| More schools/improved schools | 2% |
| Better security/safer schools | 1% |
| Curriculum | 18% |
| Back to the basic curriculum (reading, writing, arithmetic) | 10% |
| Teach more about real life/how to survive | 2% |
| Put God back in school | 1% |
| Parents | 6% |
| More parental involvement | 6% |
| Better discipline in schools | 5% |
| Testing | 4% |
| Improve standards for testing | 2% |
| Stop the government from running schools/get rid of No Child Left Behind | 2% |
| Miscellaneous | |
| School vouchers | 2% |
| Spend more time in school | 1% |
| Year round schooling | 1% |
Frank Newport, “Americans Weigh In On Improving Schools,” (Gallup Poll), September 15, 2004 [Subscription required]
Why is it that church leaders and parents often see their teenagers falling into the same mindset as those who have no relationship to the church? It could be that the things they are hearing and learning at school are the problem. Dan Smithwick, founder and president of the Nehemiah Institute, has developed a test called PEERS to discover what a teenagers worldview really is. The PEERS test measures a person’s worldview in five categories: Politics, Economics, Education, Religion, and Social Sciences.
Smithwick has discovered that most Christian students enrolled in public schools consistently score in the “socialist” category, a finding he says is not surprising since the largest percentage of teachers approach everything from a secular humanist viewpoint. Socialism is the political and economic philosophy that emphasizes government control and redistribution of wealth rather than private ownership and personal responsibility.
The test consists of a series of statements that identify a person’s worldview. Smithwick says there is a marked difference between Christian students in a Christian school and those in a public school. In Christian schools, subjects are taught using curricula that are based on a biblical worldview while curricula in public schools are based on a secular humanist worldview. Over time, those Christians in public schools are indoctrinated with the secular humanist worldview.
For those interested in the test, it can be ordered and taken at home and then mailed in for scoring or it can be taken online (see http://www.nehemiahinstitute.com/peers.php). A 22-week study course is also available to help students develop a consistent biblical worldview.
Jim Brown and Jenni Parker, Study: Secularist Schools Indoctrinate Even Christian Kids, November 25, 2004
Patrick Byrne has an idea how to get more bang for the buck in public school education. His idea is to require that 65 percent of every school districts education operating budget be spent on classroom instruction. Currently, only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, and Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in the classroom. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent and Washington, D.C. spends less than 50 percent. Byrne’s proposal wins 80-plus percent support in polls. It also drives teacher’s unions like the National Education Association crazy.
What would be the effect of such a proposal? Arizona currently spends 56.8 percent of its budget in classrooms. If the 65 percent proposal was in place, an additional $451 million would be transferred to classrooms. That money would purchase 1.5 million computers or hire 11,275 new teachers. California, which currently spends 61.7 percent on classrooms, would have $1.5 billion to buy 5 million computers or hire 37,500 teachers. Those in other states can find out how much would be transferred to their classrooms by going to http://www.firstclasseducation.org .
“Much of the reallocated money under the 65 percent requirement would go for better pay for teachers, which is wiser than just adding more teachers. Chester Finn, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, notes that, while the number of pupils grew 50 percent in the last half-century, the number of teachers grew almost 300 percent. That pleased dues-collecting teachers unions and tuition-charging education schools. But if the number of teachers had grown apace with enrollments and school budgets had risen as they have, teachers’ salaries today would average nearly $100,000 instead of less than half that.
“America, says Finn, has invested in more rather than better teachers—at a time when career opportunities were expanding for the able women who once were the backbone of public education. The fact that teachers’ salaries have just kept pace with inflation, in spite of enormous expansions of school budgets, explains why too often teachers are drawn ‘from the lower ranks of our lesser universities.’”
P(notes). George Will, “The 65 Percent Solution,” http://www.townhall.com , April 10, 2005
“Jeremy Tedesco with the Alliance Defense Fund in Scottsdale said teachers and school administrators often have the false belief that religion cannot be discussed on campus. What the law says is that public schools cannot preach religion.
“‘Schools are jittery,’ Tedesco said. ‘But they have no reason to be unless they’re doing something unreasonable.’
“He said school districts will sometimes adopt textbooks that downplay religion ‘out of fear that they’re doing something wrong or out of a desire to avoid controversy.’ He said other schools look for textbooks that give equal space to every major world religion.
“The result can be a distortion of history, he said, especially in the United States where Christianity has played a bigger role in national events than other religions.
“‘It’s hard to be equal in American history,’ Tedesco said. ‘There are no Muslim Founding Fathers.’
“Earl Taylor, principal at Heritage Academy charter school in downtown Mesa, said religious ideas and values that used to be taught in American schools have disappeared, and many schools today are hostile toward religion.
“‘We’ve departed so completely from our founding principles that we’re floundering,’ he said.
“Taylor encourages Heritage Academy history teachers to address the topic of religion head on. A textbook at the school called “World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective” has drawn at least three complaints from parents over the years, including one in August.
“But each time, Taylor has satisfied the state Board for Charter Schools that his teachers stay within the boundaries of the law.
“‘What we’re doing here is what the founders would want us to do, and it’s legal,’ said Taylor, who displays a painting in his office of George Washington kneeling in prayer. ‘We’re not slanting history; we’re not re-interpreting history. We’re trying to teach history the way it really was.’”
Daryl James, Religious Issues Spark Public School Discord, (East Valley Tribune), April 10, 2005
School safety is a very important issue. A rash of school shootings has sensitized everyone to the need for safe schools. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service has the following guidelines:
- The school has strong leadership, caring faculty, family and community involvement that includes law enforcement officials and representatives of community-based organizations, and student participation in the design of programs and policies.
- The physical environment of the school is safe and schoolwide policies are in place to promote and support responsible behaviors.
- Prevention and intervention programs are sustained, coordinated, and comprehensive.
- Interventions are based on careful assessment of student needs.
- Evidence-based approaches are used.
- Staff are provided with training and support to help them implement programs and approaches.
- Interventions are monitored and evaluations are conducted to ensure that the programs are meeting measurable goals and objectives.
(Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide, American Institute for Research, U.S. Department of Education, 2000)
- Schools that incorporate these characteristics will achieve improved academics, reduced disciplinary referrals and suspensions, greater staff morale, and enhanced safety (Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide, American Institute for Research, U.S. Department of Education, 2000).
In the Spotlight: School Safety, (National Criminal Justice Reference Service) [Accessed April 13, 2005]