Public schools are suffering from a dearth of good teachers and good curriculums. Extracurricular activities, the arts, physical education programs, and the love of learning are disappearing from public schools. Home schooling, "hybrid" educations, and charter schools are moving to the mainstream. The consolidated control of public schools into bureaucratic structures has stifled education, progress, and creativity. If we are to save the public school system in America, we must deconsolidate and decentralize control down to the local level and involve parents more.
The mass consolidation of public education has occurred alongside the mass consolidation of banking, media, and business in the United States. In 1932, there were 127,531 independent school districts in the U.S., many of them operating a single school. By 1990 there were only 17,995 school districts left. As a result of the 80's and 90's obsession with consolidation, we have suffered the collapse of consolidated banking institutions, the poor reporting of consolidated media, the diminishing quality of our food supply, and the failure of public education.
Deconsolidated and decentralized school districts were the aims of an American education from the founding of this country. Thomas Jefferson proposed "to divide every county into wards of five or six miles square;... to establish in each ward a free school for reading, writing and common arithmetic; to provide for the annual selection of the best subjects (i.e., students) from these schools, who might receive at the public expense a higher degree of education at a district school...for defeating the competition of wealth and birth for public trusts." (Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:399) Jefferson argued that small school districts were "necessary for better administration of our government, and the eternal preservation of its republican principles." As Jefferson points out, small, school districts uphold the principles of republican democracy; i.e., trust, local ownership, and equality.
Deconsolidation and decentralization give control to parents to make the best decisions for their children. In general, no one looks out for the interests of children better than parents. Data shows that there has been an increase of 74 percent in homeschooling over the past 10 years and much larger increase in "hybrid educated" students. A "hybrid education" means choosing from a menu of educational offerings including online classes and public school courses. In addition, from 1999-2000 to 2007-2008, the number of students enrolled in charter schools, in the United States, more than tripled, from 340,000 to 1.3 million students. This unparalleled rise in homeschooling, charter schools, and "hybrid educations" indicates that parents want to have more choice and greater influence upon the education of their children.
Whether your concern is political, educational, or ethical, deconsolidation and decentralization of public school districts is the answer. We can continue to consolidate power over public schools through programs like "No Child Left Behind" and more recently "The Race to the Top", or we can return to our "republican principles" that have served us so well all of these years. Our decision will determine the success of our children and our country.
(Sources:
http://www.battlefortruth.org/ArticlesDetail.asp?id=393&rr=1#resp &
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39342787/ns/today-parenting/ &
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30)
