Maybe this is symptomatic of the kinds of social circles I run in, but I often hear friends and acquaintances saying that they are sending their kids (current or future) to public school because they “believe in public schools.”
I’m not sure what this means exactly.
All the people I know who say this, well-intentioned though they are, seem to still reinforce the class system in United States education. None of them sends their kids to underfunded or physically dangerous public schools. Instead, they send their children to charter schools or rich public schools. And then they encourage their children to go to private post-secondary schools.
I don’t see what right these people have to lord it over those who supposedly don’t “believe in” public schools.
I’m a case in point, though my parents were never snobs about “believing in” public schools. I grew up in a rich suburb and went to a very well-funded public school. Then, I went to a private university for my bachelor’s degree and another private university for my master’s degree. So what makes my parents different from those who “believe in” public schools—at least the “believers” I’ve met? Not a whole lot.
I’ve taught in both private and public high schools. I don’t see any practical difference in terms of funding source, but I do see a lot of differences in terms of funding amounts, even within funding sources. Is there some kind of ideological integrity that comes with having loads of money come through taxing rich individuals and then being funneled through the local town or city government… as opposed to having loads of money go straight from the rich individuals to the school itself?
Even if you are a true idealist of this sort and send your kid to a poorly funded public school, what does that prove? What do you gain from that? Will that serve to balance the inequities in our educational system? Are you also going to insist your child go to only public universities and work for only government-funded jobs?
Public is not inherently better or more idealistic than private, and there is no reason to feel you are better than others because you send your child to a public school. I’m so sick of this “I believe in public schools” crap. Am I the only one who hears this? Am I the only one sick of hearing that phrase?
You’re right. Just sending your kids to a public school doesn’t necessarily count as support. Belief in public schools has to translate into direct action: holding fundraisers, volunteering in the library (elementary librarians can always use a little extra help), tutoring, etc. We are in a large urban school district and we feel that there is segregation at work even if it is indirect. We will send our kids to the local primary school, but when they get old enough to go to the middle, we probably won’t because students are required to pass through metal detectors. We trying to figure out what to do and confront some of these issues in ourselves. We may even end up sending our kids to private or magnet when they get to be that age. We don’t want to sacrifice our kids but we also want to support our local public school (primary and middle), does not sending our kids to the middle school make us hypocrites?
No, I don’t think you’re hypocrites, as long as you have the right perspective on things.
Public school can be a good thing, but so can private (or rich public or specialized public).
I just don’t see why some people villify the private educational sphere and make it sound as if public is inherently better than private.