The Charter School Debate

Yesterday after I dropped Gavin off at school, Chloe's mom approached me as she was also leaving the school. She jokingly apologized for all the attention that Chloe was giving Gavin lately, which I brushed off telling her that he felt the same way, it was really cute, all that gushy mom crap.

In our area we recently acquired a new Charter school to accompany the public elementary school that Tyler attends, as well as a new public elementary school which opens at the beginning of next school year. Gavin told me that Chloe, along with many other kids in his pre~K class, is going to the Charter school.

I mentioned to her mom that we're sad they won't be in the same school next year. She almost visibly jumped back in shock ~ saying "oh, Gavin's not going to Charter School?".

"No," I replied, "he's going to go to Public Elementary School".

"Oh... well... he won't be there for long" she said, confidently.

Things started to get awkward when I mentioned that my older son already attended that school and we were pretty happy there so far. She quickly muttered that her son had gone there in 2nd grade for about two months before they pulled him out... saying that kids that age were just rambunctious and they'd come from a really good school and probably had set their expectations too high.

Wow.

I smiled uneasily, trying to be polite to what could potentially be Gavin's mother in law one day, as he has planned it. She was also ready to be done with our conversation and cheerfully said "well, good luck!" as she hopped in her minivan and sped away.

I know she didn't intend for the conversation to turn out this way any more than I do ~ she seems like a nice enough person. And I'm sure she didn't intend to leave me feeling judged as slightly inadequate as a mother for choosing Public Elementary School over Charter School. But as I drove away, frustrated, I called Shawn for support and reassurance that we're not horrible parents who don't care about our children's education...

As always he was comforting and lovingly reminded me of the reasons we chose to keep Tyler at Public Elementary School after Kindergarten when it seemed like half the kids in his class (which happened to be most of the ones whose parents were very involved in the school and their kids' education) left to go to Charter School.

Tyler has so far excelled in school. Granted, he's a smart kid (c'mon ~ what parent doesn't think their kid is one of the smartest in the class?) and he'd likely succeed in any school. But we have so far been pleased with what he's learning, the rate that he's learning and how he's being taught.
Public Elementary School is a rather new school with up to date facilities and a comfortable environment. The staff are friendly and helpful and even the Specials teachers are great.

My involvement in the school has enabled me to get to know the kids that are in his class, which I intend to continue and maybe even increase as my schedule changes, with Gavin's class. We haven't had problems with bullies or excessive teasing, so far. I'm not naive enough to think this will never happen, but I think it will happen regardless of the school that they attend. After all, I went to an expensive Catholic grade school and high school while Shawn attended public schools his entire 12 years. Both of us experienced similar attitudes from our classmates ~ kids being kids.

Basically my reasons for keeping the boys at Public Elementary School are that they are getting a quality education and so far, we've all been happy there. And if we weren't, we'd do what we could do to change what we didn't like. To fix what was broken. But probably more importantly, we don't like the alternative ~ Charter School.

I couldn't get into all of this with Chloe's mom but if I could have and if she'd been interested, I'd have liked to have made these points:

1. Charter School is a business. It's a for profit entity that is there to make money. Right now it's free, as it's funding comes from tax money set aside by our current government, which happens to be friendly to these charter schools and their founders. Founders who run corporations that just happen to fall on the other side of the fence (specifically, the conservative side) from where we stand. The owner of Charter School backed Bush to the tune of $100,000, and was also a major donor to Mitt Romney. The owner also sits on the board of a Christian advocacy group called the Acton Institute, which, among other things is a big Global Warming denier who receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Exxon Corporation (and you guys know how I feel about the environment and climate change!). While these things alone are not reasons enough to discredit him, I get nervous about politics and education mixing.

2. The curriculum is not monitored in the same way our Public Elementary School's is. This worries me because things I don't think should be taught in school could be taught to my sons. I think they should be taught the fundamental truths of math, English, social studies, etc. I want to teach my children about all aspects of religion and politics and right and wrong, and let them decided for themselves. That's my job and Shawn's job. The school's job is to educate about the facts, not opinions.


3. The curriculum is "Family Values" based. While I think it's important for us to teach our children ethics and values and morality... I don't know that school is the appropriate place for that. With the founder and financial backers of the school being conservative types, I also worry that the family values they teach might be limited to traditional families. While our family IS a traditional family, many are not... and I don't want my children being taught that families different from ours are not Ok.

4. Charter schools lead the way for the model of paying for education that I think will do a disservice to those in our society that are lacking in the financial department. I believe in socialized education because it ensures that every neighborhood, no matter how poor, will have access to free education. And when we start putting a dollar amount on education, we open the door for class division that I don't think is healthy or necessary.

5. Charter school teaches Patriotism in their curriculum. While I love my country and am proud to be an American, with all that that entails, sometimes the things our family stands for and believes in are not considered "Patriotic" because they don't fall in line with the right wing agenda.


So yeah... too much to get into in the parking lot, but I figure my silence told her that we hadn't thought out our decision. And though I know she doesn't read my blog, it makes me feel better to get it all out there and know that we HAVE thought it out... and we feel our reasons are legitimate. So whether you agree with me or not, thanks for listening. :)

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On a lighter note ~ this week the babies are avocado's!! They are 4.5 inches long. I thought I felt them moving a couple times this past week but I'm pretty sure it's too soon for that... so perhaps it was just *ahem* gas. Their closed eyes are moving and they are getting toenails!

We're at 16 weeks today... It's really going so fast. For me, anyway. I'm sure for the Makua it's going painfully slow!!

Anyway, happy Thursday!