essay of public school

20 Public Schools Pros And Cons

Dalia Yashinsky (MA, Phil)

Dalia Yashinsky is a freelance academic writer. She graduated with her Bachelor's (with Honors) from Queen's University in Kingston Ontario in 2015. She then got her Master's Degree in philosophy, also from Queen's University, in 2017.

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Chris Drew (PhD)

This article was peer-reviewed and edited by Chris Drew (PhD). The review process on Helpful Professor involves having a PhD level expert fact check, edit, and contribute to articles. Reviewers ensure all content reflects expert academic consensus and is backed up with reference to academic studies. Dr. Drew has published over 20 academic articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education and holds a PhD in Education from ACU.

In most developed countries, school is mandatory for kids between the ages of 6-18, though the exact age range depends on the nation, state. or province.

Public schools are government-run and funded learning institutions that are free for all students to attend. By and large, the vast majority of students attend public schools, and there are many reasons why this is the case.

Public schools are free for students to attend, transportation to and from the schools are often provided, and the public education curriculum is regulated and vetted by the government.

Despite all the advantages that come with public education, many parents and their children still opt out of the public education system so they can teach their kids either at home, through homeschooling, or at private schools.

Some parents prefer to homeschool their children so they can more closely monitor their child’s education and progress; whereas other parents might prefer to send their kids to private schools that are more capable of meeting certain learning needs that their child may have, or provides a more tailored education curriculum.

Public School Pros and Cons – Summary Table

Pros of Public Schools	Cons of Public Schools
Public schools are free	Public schools have less access to resources
Public schools are accessible	Public schools have bigger class sizes
Transportation is often provided	Public schools have fewer curriculum options
Teachers are certified	Public schools are less specialized
Special support is usually provided for children in need	Public schools have fewer activities
Public schools are diverse	Public schools have less parental involvement
Public schools are heavily regulated	Public schools have frequent testing
Public schools won’t close down if they go bankrupt	Bullying is supposedly more prevalent in public schools
Public schools often perform very well	Public schools can be overcrowded
Public schools provide a consistent and uniform educational experience.	There are often issues with public school infrastructure

Read Also: Public Schools vs Charter Schools (Key Differences, Strengths, and Weaknesses)

Advantages of Public Schools

1. public schools are free.

Public schools are funded by federal, state, and local governments, which means that parents and kids can enjoy the benefits of an education without having to face heavy financial burdens.

For many people, paying for their child’s education is not a viable option, so keeping public education free is necessary to make sure all kids have the opportunity to go to school and receive an education.

2. Public Schools are Accessible

Regional governments and school boards are usually in control of their region’s public education. That means that regional and municipal governments are responsible for delivering the specified standard of education required, and determining when there is a need for new schools in a particular area or neighbourhood.

For all kids to be able to go to school, public schools have to be accessible for each child to physically (or virtually) attend. Geography, and the physical location of public schools relative to where kids and their families’ lives plays a big role in determing the overall accessibility of public schools.

3. Transportation is Often Provided

Though schoolbusses depends on the region and local funding, most public schools offer transportation for kids to and from the school by the yellow school bus. Ontario alone transports over 833,000 students each day to and from school.

Schoolbusses are better for the environment, all things considered, since they help reduce the number of vehicles on the road by providing transportation for kids so parents don’t have to. They also make attending school easier for many kids that would otherwise face difficulty getting to school. Understandably the availability of bus routes can be a huge advantage and reason to vote in favour of public schools that provide transportation.

4. Teachers are Certified

Governments require that teachers be certified, licensed professionals in order to teach at public schools. People that go onto become teachers are expected to go to teacher’s school, or a program that provides them with the relevant credentials and skills to teach public education in a public-school setting.

The process that teachers have to go through to earn their teaching credentials ensures that certain standards are being met, and that these teachers are qualified in their teaching competencies and subject matter (at the relevant grade level.)

5. Public Schools Offer a Range of Supports

Each kid is different, and some require additional educational support, or personalized education plans to reach their learning goals. Since public schools educate students from all sorts backgrounds, and kids with different learning styles or disabilities, it’s necessary for public schools to have resources and a range of supports to meet the learning needs of all students. This is why public schools offer Special Education classes, or English as a second language (ESL) classes, and other types of student supports.

6. Public Schools are Diverse

On average, public schools tend to have a much higher degree of diversity in their student population than private schools. By attending public schools, kids become aware of cultural backgrounds that are different from their own. The diversity that exists in public schools allows kids the opportunity to become friends with other kids from diverse backgrounds and can create a more inclusive environment that goes beyond just the classroom.

7. Public Schools are Heavily Regulated

Since public schools are funded by the government through tax-payer’s money, they face a significant amount of regulation and oversight by the government to ensure that the curriculum is being taught to the relevant standard.

For example, in Ontario, public school students from K-12 are required to take the EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) test. The EQAO is a government-run test that assesses student’s literacy skills and numeracy skills at key intervals in their elementary education. These types of academic assessments exist to make sure that schools and teachers are meeting the standards outlined by the education curriculum, and that students are actually learning according to their grade level.

8. Public Schools Won’t Permanently Close Down

Unlike public schools, charter schools and private schools are privately run-and-funded, which results in a much higher rate of private and charter schools closures compared to public schools. When private and charter schools go belly-up, this seriously disrupts a child’s education and places the burden on the family to find schooling in the middle of their child’s school year.

Public schools face significantly less closures than private or charter schools because they are not privately-run, capitalist insitutions, and face regulations on an ongoing basis.

9. Public Schools Often Perform Very Well

There’s no question that schools vary in academic performance between one another, and in some cases private or charter schools do perform better than their public-school counterparts. That said, numerous studies have been done that show how on average, public schools either match or outperform private and/or charter schools. The Public School Advantage is a book written by Christopher Lubienski and Sarah Lubienski that look to debunk the myth of private schools out-performing public schools due to the fact that private schools are commerically run. Lubienski argues that the better-performing students at private schools should not be attributed to the private school providing a better education, but because these students come from more affluent backgrounds that are better able to support the child’s education.

10. Public Schools are Consistent and Uniform

Since private and charter schools are privately run and for-profit, there are extreme disparities in the quality of education provided at some private schools than others. Public schools, on the other hand, operate on an entirely different structure.

The curriculum is provided to them, and regulatory bodies oversee public school performance to ensure a standard of quality is being met across the board. As a result, parents can depend on the quality of public education to be more consistent, reliable and inclusive of each student and their diverse set of needs.

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Disadvantages Of Public Schools

1. public schools have less access to resources.

Public schools face funding shortages that can impact the school’s ability to access important and relevant school resources that kids need.

Private schools, and in some cases charter schools do not face similar issues with regards to school funds because they are for-profit organizations and collect student tuition. Kids that attend private schools may come from more affluent economic backgrounds, and so the parents of these kids are oftentimes better able to support the school through financial contributions or volunteering.

2. Public Schools have Bigger Class Sizes

The vast majority of students attend public schools because they are free for students to attend. With the amount of students enrolled in public schools each year, classroom sizes on average tend to be much higher in public schools than private schools.

Classroom size is a significant consideration because the more students there are in a classroom the busier the teacher is, and this could result in less one-on-one time between the teacher and individual students in the class. According to the NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) the average classroom size in public schools is 25, compared to 19 students per class in private schools.

3. Public Schools have Fewer Curriculum Options

Public schools are required to stick to the government-mandated curriculum that has been instated by the ministries of education. Parents that want a more focused or specialized curriculum for their child may find public schools lacking in that regard.

Private schools, on the other hand, offer various educational programs, curriculums and specializations that may focus on some academic areas more than others. For example, there are private schools that focus their curriculum more on the arts, STEM, sports and so on. For students that demonstrate an interest or talent in a certain area, private schools can be a good option so kids can focus more on the areas that interest them.

4. Public Schools are Less Specialized

Gifted students, or students that demonstrate a proclivity for some academic areas more than others should nurture their abilities by attending a more specialized school. Parents with gifted kids, or kids that excel in a particular area might opt out of sending their kids to a public school so that they can better meet their child’s education goals.

It’s important that kids feel challenged and motivated to keep stretching their skills and competencies. When students are bored in class, or do not feel they are being challenged, this can negatively affect their academic performance and interest in education overall. Private schools that have a more focused education curriculum can therefore be a much better fit for some students given their individual talents and interests.

5. Public Schools have Fewer Extracurricular Activities

While this is not true for all private schools, some private schools have more extracurricular activities, clubs and sports teams for students to choose from than public schools do. Since private schools collect tuition, and sometimes receive additional support from parent in the form of donations, certain private schools have the funds to provide outstanding extracurriculars and sport programs to their students.

6. Public Schools have Less Parental Involvement

Compared to private schools, public schools see less parental involvement in their child’s education and with the school in general. Parents that send their kids to private schools, on the other hand, tend to be much more involved in their child’s education and school as a whole, since these parents are paying for their child’s education. As a result, they have a bigger stake or feel a vested interest in their child’s education that parents of public-school kids might not feel as intensely.

7. Public Schools have Frequent Testing

Under the neoliberal education paradigm , students that attend public schools must take ongoing, standardized tests throughout their K-12 education so governments can better assess school performance and ensure the school is delivering the curriculum appropriately. Standardized tests are stressful for students and put immense pressure on them to perform up to grade level. Lots of kids don’t do well on tests, and experience extreme anxiety in preparing for them. For many students, the thought of having to take these mandatory standardized can be a drawback of the public school system.

8. Bullying is Supposedly more Prevalent in Public Schools

The NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) reports that roughly 20%, or 1 in 5 kids experience some form of bullying throughout their K-12 education.

Though there is limited research on the prevalence of bullying in private schools, by comparison, the numbers show that public schools tend to have more incidents of bullying, with more students being ostracized as a result.

No parent wants their kid getting bullied at school. To shield kids from being bullied, some parents pull their kids out of public school in the hopes that they will not face these problems in private school.

9. Public Schools can be Overcrowded

Overcrowded classrooms, limited workspaces and a lack of one-on-one student-teacher time can significantly impact student achievement and progress. Classrooms that are overpopulated with students face greater distractions, behavioural issues and as a result, students can fall behind on their learning goals and grade level.

Teachers with classrooms that are overpopulated find themselves stretched thin, and may not be able to meet the needs of each student in the class. This makes it easy for some students to fall behind or slip between the cracks of the public education system. Overcrowded classrooms raises a big issue that dissuade many people from sending their kids to public schools.

10. Issues with Public School Infrastructure

Education Week spoke about the dismal state of school infrastructure in an article they published in 2021 . Public schools have been seriously impacted and student education disrupted because of issues in the public school’s infrastructure. In Connecticut, a public school had to shut down because the ceiling collapsed and caused flooding. There are numerous examples of public schools failing to provide safe and inhabitable environments for students, which leads to closures and an interruption in student education.

Every school is different and face their own set of unique challenges that depend on a variety of factors. Overpopulation, lack of resources and funding can result in a myriad of issues for public schools that sometimes impedes on their ability to provide quality instruction. Public schools are the most popular and widely-attended form of education, and as we have seen in this post, there are many reasons why people choose to send their kids to public schools. While public schools are far from perfect, for the most part, they can be relied upon to deliver quality educational instruction to all students, no matter their individual learning style or grade level.

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Public School vs. Private School Education Essay

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Introduction

The comparison of public and private schools, works cited.

The choice of the best school is the eternal problem for all parents. Many debates have occurred on this basis. Public and private schools vary in numerous aspects. Nevertheless, the most significant reason for parents’ choice of public schools is the cost of studying at private schools. Although public schools are free for all students, private schools are better for pupils because of the profound approach to studying and the effective environment for education.

The determination of the best type of school can be rather a challenging task. There are both advantages and disadvantages in the public and private sector of education. It is necessary to compare the schools on the basis of several significant factors.

Quality of education

The school program and teachers’ qualifications predetermine the quality of teaching. Thus, public schools should follow the standards defined by the national curriculum. Private schools can offer a wider choice of subjects to be taught. For instance, some schools include specific topics in their programs such as sexual or religious education of children.

Some parents may choose the particular school because its basis meets their principles and understanding of the world. Besides, the teacher in private schools is free to choose thy ways of presenting new material. However, some subjects such as mathematics, history, and science are obligatory in both types of schools.

Private schools demonstrate the better quality of education because of their admission standards. Private schools accept students who pass necessary tests and prove that they have the desired level of knowledge. Such a selection enhances the quality expectations. Public schools have to accept all students regardless of the level of their knowledge. Very often, this fact impedes the achievement of good academic results (Kennedy par. 6).

Exposure to violence

The level of violence in public schools is of primary concern to principals. There have been many cases of shooting in public schools. Consequently, public schools have to work on their security measures. It is also difficult to monitor the intentions and activities of all students in public schools.

On the contrary, private schools are considered to be safer than public. It can be explained by several facts. As far as private schools do not have to accept all students, the risk for dangerous behaviors is lower. Also, it is easier to supervise pupils in private schools because they are less in number.

The number of students who are taught is significant for the efficiency of education. In public schools, almost thirty students go to one class. Teachers face difficulty in approaching and engaging every student. The time devoted to the lesson is not enough for providing all pupils with opportunities to express themselves and answer.

In private schools, the class is comprised of no more than twenty students. Thus, teachers have the possibility to monitor the academic achievements of every pupil in the class. During the lesson, the teacher can approach every student and evaluate his or her knowledge. Consequently, the teacher notices students who need more attention and can help them to catch up with others.

Social development

The school environment influences the social and moral development of students drastically. This environment includes the social support, the educational programs, relations with other peers, and teachers’ approaches to the presentation of new material. Strong relationships are essential for the efficient social development of the child. Thus, students are more likely to greet each other or help with different activities when they have positive feelings (National School Climate Center 1).

It is rather difficult to define the type of school that is the best for the appropriate social development of children. The social development of children depends on the school environment. One cannot say that positive school environments are typical for private or public schools only.

Public schools can be helpful because pupils have the possibility to communicate with many people. They can find many friends and develop positively. However, there is a risk that the students may find friends who will influence them negatively. Also, an enormous diversity of public schools’ society provides the opportunity to learn how to behave and communicate effectively in society.

Private schools, at the same time, may have the better environment for the social development because of the limited number of learners. Administrators and school personnel can do their best to create the most efficient environment for pupils while it is not always possible in public schools.

The primary disadvantage of private school is their cost. They are much more expensive than public schools. The necessity to pay for private education limits the number of students whose parents can afford paying annual fees. Public schools are funded by local authorities and provide all students with the equal opportunity for studying.

A variety of aspects influences the choice of school. Private schools provide students with better academic opportunities in comparison to public one. Despite the fact that public schools require no tuition fees and can be useful for the development of social skills, private schools are better because of the high quality of education, a limited class size, and a low level of violence.

Kennedy, Robert. Comparison of Private and Public Schools . n.d. Web.

National School Climate Center. School Climate and Moral and Social Development . 2013. Web.

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Essay Review of The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools

Amanda U. Potterton Arizona State University Educational Policy and Evaluation Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8020-4251

Author Biography

Amanda u. potterton, arizona state university educational policy and evaluation mary lou fulton teachers college.

Amanda U. Potterton is a student in the Ph.D. Program in Educational Policy and Evaluation, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University. Her research interests include the politics of school choice, charter schools, privatization and public education, and the justice-related implications of these policies for students living in poverty, for students with special education needs, and for students who are English language learners. Prior to joining the Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Evaluation, she was a New York City Teaching Fellow and taught special education in New York City, and a teacher and school leader in the United Kingdom.

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Berliner, D. C., & Biddle, B. J. (1995). The manufactured crisis: Myths, fraud, and the attack on America’s public schools. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing, Company, Inc.

Berliner, D. C., & Glass, G. V (2014). 50 myths and lies that threaten America’s public schools. New York: Teachers College Press.

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Cobb, C. D., & Glass G. V (1999). Ethnic segregation in Arizona charter schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 7(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v7n1.1999

Coleman, J. S., & Hoffer, T. (1987). Public and private high schools: The impact of communities. New York: Basic Books.

Coleman, J., Hoffer, T., & Kilgore, S. (1982). Cognitive outcomes in public and private schools. Sociology of Education, 55(2), 65-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2112288

DiMartino, C., & Scott, J. (2013). Private sector contracting and democratic accountability. Educational Policy, 27(2), 307-333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0895904812465117

Ertas, N., & Roch, C. H. (2014). Charter schools, equity, and student enrollments: The role of for-profit educational management organizations. Education and Urban Society, 46(5), 548-579. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013124512458118

Forster, G. (2005, May 12). “F” is for failure. National Review Online. Retrieved from http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/214425/f-failure/greg-forster

Frankenberg, E., Siegel-Hawley, G., & Wang, J. (2011). Choice without equity: Charter school segregation. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 19(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v19n1.2011

Ginsburg, M. B., & Gorostiaga, J. M. (2001). Relationships between theorists/researchers and policy makers/practitioners: Rethinking the two-cultures thesis and the possibility of dialogue. Comparative Education Review, 45(2), 173-196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/447660

Greene, J. P. (2014, March 26). Wolf takes on the big Lubienskis. Retrieved from http://jaypgreene.com/2014/03/26/wolf-takes-on-the-big-lubienskis/

Grogger, J., & Neal, D. A. (2000). Further evidence on the effects of Catholic secondary schooling. Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs 2000, 1, 151-193. Brookings Institution Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/urb.2000.0006

Holme, J. J., & Richards, M. P. (2009). School choice and stratification in a regional context: Examining the role of inter-district choice. Peabody Journal of Education, 84(2), 150-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01619560902810120

Hoxby, C., Murarka, S., & Kang, J. (2009). How New York City’s charter schools affect achievement. Second report in series. Cambridge, MA: New York City Charter Schools Evaluation Project. Retrieved from http://users.nber.org/~schools/charterschoolseval/how_NYC_charter_schools_affect_achievement_sept2009.pdf

Lubienski, S. T., & Lubienski, C. (2005). A new look at public and private schools: Student background and mathematics achievement. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(9), 696-699. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/003172170508600914

Lubienski, C., & Lubienski, S. T. (2006). Charter, private, public schools and academic achievement: New evidence from the NAEP mathematics data. New York: National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education.

Lubienski, S. T. (2006). Examining instruction, achievement, and equity with NAEP mathematics data. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 14(14). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v14n14.2006

Lubienski, S. T., & Lubienski, C. (2006a). School sector and academic achievement: A multilevel analysis of NAEP mathematics data. American Educational Research Journal, 43(4), 651-698. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/00028312043004651

Lubienski, S. T., & Lubienski, C. (2006b). What NAEP can tell us about school achievement. Education Week, 25(26), 28-30. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/03/08/26lubienski.h25.html

Lubienski, S. T., Lubienski, C., & Crane, C. C. (2008). Achievement differences and school type: The role of school climate, teacher certification, and instruction. American Journal of Education, 115(1), 97-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/590677

Lubienski, C. A., & Lubienski, S. T. (2014). The public school advantage: Why public schools outperform private schools. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226089072.001.0001

Lubienski, C. (2014, April 2). The ongoing debate on public and private school effectiveness: Vouchers, representative samples, fundamentalism, and Wal-Mart. The Forum on the Future of Public Education. Retrieved from http://forum.illinois.edu/blog/109

Miron, G., & Nelson, C. (2002). What’s public about charter schools? Lessons learned about choice and accountability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Ni, Y. (2009). The impact of charter schools on the efficiency of traditional public schools: Evidence from Michigan. Economics of Education Review, 28(5), 571-584. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2009.01.003

Peterson, P., & Laudet, E. (2006). On the public-private school achievement debate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.

Stossel, J. (2006, July 26). Smearing education choice. Townhall.com. Retrieved from http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2006/07/26/smearing_education_choice/page/full

U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. (2014a). National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/

U.S. Department of Education. (2014b). Race to the Top fund. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executive-summary.pdf

Wenglinsky, H. (2006). On ideology, causal inference and the reification of statistical methods: Reflections on “Examining instruction, achievement and equity with NAEP mathematics data.” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 14(17). http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v14n17.2006

Wenglinsky, H. (2007). Are private high schools better academically than public high schools? Washington DC: Center on Education Policy. Retrieved from http://www.cep-dc.org/displayDocument.cfm?DocumentID=121

Wolf, P. J. (2010). School vouchers in Washington, DC: Achievement impacts and their implications for social justice. Educational Research and Evaluation, 16(2), 131-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2010.484974

Wolf, P. J. (2014). Comparing public schools to private. Education Next, 14(3).

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Best Essays of 2020: The 15 Most Shared (and Debated) Columns About Students, Schools & Remote Learning We Published This Year

L earning loss. Virtual instruction. Family stress. Student supports. As the nation’s schools shuttered this spring, and then restructured operations for a second disrupted school year, it led to a wave of memorable essays here at The 74 about the challenges being faced by districts, the innovations being tried by teachers and the difficult reality of what it was like to be a public school student in 2020. As we then reached September, and it became apparent that the disruptions caused by coronavirus would also extend well into 2021, a new series of essays took the longer view, of how school leaders, parents and state policymakers should brace for continued hardships. Below are our 15 most memorable essays of the year; you can our latest commentary and analysis delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter .

Student Voice: Two Weeks, Five Siblings and One Working Laptop. How I Navigated the Nation’s Largest School System in Search of an iPad — and What It Taught Me About America’s Digital Divide

Pandemic Notebook: Back in March, Brandon Yam woke up and dialed the tech department of the nation’s largest school system in New York City. For two weeks, he writes in this addition to the “Pandemic Notebook” series, Yam fruitlessly pursued the district to learn the status of his application for one of 300,000 devices available for students who lack them. Yam is a junior at highly selective Francis Lewis High School. But he also comes from a poor immigrant family in the city’s Flushing neighborhood, where his parents, a chef and a postal employee, are essential workers and he shares the family’s 10-year-old laptop with five siblings. He writes: “My siblings and I butted heads to get to the router at the center of our living room for a bar of internet connection. … I often pinched the corners of my iPhone 6 screen wide, squinting to see my trigonometry and physics teachers doing practice problems on paper.” Along the way, he learned some sobering lessons about privilege and navigating the digital divide. Now, he writes, “I sit here wondering how many other children have had to act on their own with parents at work — playing the roles of traffic cop, translator and support system.” Read Yam’s full reflection here .

“Pandemic Notebook” registered as The 74’s most read and shared essay series of the year — and we now plan on extending the effort into 2021 as the classroom disruptions caused by coronavirus continue through a second school year. A few other memorable entries from 2020:

Student Safety: ‘A bird trapped in a golden cage’ — Amid the pandemic, one student’s story of abuse during quarantine ( Read the full essay )
Remote Learning: Part staycation, part home detention, my life during pandemic is a study in contrasts ( Read the full essay )
Family Stress: My mom Is 55, Black, and just returned to work in a doctor’s office in New York City. That’s why I’m scared ( Read the full essay )
Go Deeper: See our full “Pandemic Notebook” archive

An Open Letter to Parents From a National Teacher of the Year on Tips for Remote Learning and How to Support Your School Community

Resilience: “Dear Parents/Guardians, I know that, amid all the uncertainty and fear right now, it’s overwhelming to suddenly take over as your children’s teacher. Don’t worry — they’re going to learn just fine with you in charge.” So begins an open letter from Rodney Robinson , 2019 National Teacher of the Year and a 20-year veteran educator. “But we could all use a little extra help at the moment, so here are some tips to help you get through the next few months while the education system adjusts.” From self-care for parents and patience in making decisions to academic and social-emotional support, he writes, “Remind yourself that although we are experiencing perhaps the greatest challenge since World War II, everything is going to work out. Love, empathy and compassion will get us through this pandemic… We can’t wait to see you when school opens.” Read the full letter .

Open Letter to Joe Biden — The Votes of Black and Brown Charter School Parents Matter. Ignore Us at Your Own Peril

Politics: This past spring, the Democrats formed six so-called Unity Task Forces intended to give hope and unification to the party. They may do so for some forces within the party, writes contributor Howard Fuller, but to Black and brown families who have chosen public charter schools to ensure their children get the best education possible, the makeup of the Task Force on Education is an insult . “What is grossly obvious when looking at the list of advisers creating educational policy for the Democratic Party platform is that the 3.3 million students and over 219,000 teachers attending and working in public charter schools have not been considered at all. … Joe Biden, you and your Democratic Party are sending a message to the families of public charter schools that we don’t matter because our educational choices go against the status quo … you are sending the message that you do not support the right of Latino and Black parents to make these critically important, and potentially lifesaving, choices for their children. We demand to be seen, valued and heard. We want to be more than photo ops to be used in your campaign literature. We will not accept second-class citizenship. We demand our seat at the table so you can hear and learn from our collective expertise and experiences, which come out of rich histories of struggle against oppression in this country. … You cannot ignore us and expect us to march blindly to the ballot box to support you.” Read Fuller’s open letter .

Chad Aldeman: How Much Learning Time Are Students Getting? In 7 Large School Districts, Less Than Normal — and in 3, They’re Getting More

Remote Learning: Back in August, contributor Chad Aldeman calculated that the remote learning schedule for his local public school district of Fairfax, Virginia, was offering less than half of a typical school year to his first-grade son. This trend is not unique to Fairfax: The majority of American students are experiencing either a partial school day or week, or fully virtual classes. While Aldeman doesn’t question the logic of district decisions in this regard, he wondered — collectively, how much learning time will these policies cost students? To find out, he compared the number of hours of live instruction planned this year for 5th-, 8th- and 11th-graders in 10 large districts with their state’s requirement for the amount of school time students should normally receive. Seven of the 10 — Los Angeles; Clark County, Nevada; Wake County, North Carolina; New York City; Montgomery Country, Maryland; Fairfax; and Chicago — are planning to deliver far less instructional time to students than normal. But Houston; Gwinnett County, Georgia; and Miami-Dade, Florida, are on track to surpass the minimal state requirements for instructional hours. Read the full analysis .

Derrell Bradford: Black Lives Matter and Black Education Matters Because Freedom Matters. Only When Black Folks Are Safe to Both Learn and Live Will America Be Free

Equity: The killing of George Floyd and subsequent calls to action by the Black Lives Matter movement drove home some long-ago lessons for contributor Derrell Bradford about the continuum on which race, the police and education interact. “If you think about race and education and policing as intertwined, there is also no moment when you do not see how they conspire for the betterment or detriment of the country’s children; and, for much of my adult life, the country’s Black children. … And at this moment, the overlap could not be clearer. You cannot solve a problem of Black lives with an all-lives solution. We can’t have an ‘all education matters’ approach to the challenges of Black education . One that doesn’t require states or districts to meet the needs of kids who, too, are fighting to be free and equal, but instead demands they conform to systems that have not historically worked for them in the name of the public good. All education cannot matter until Black education does. … As the only people in this nation’s history who have been both physically enslaved and intellectually starved as a result of not just sentiment, or economics, but public policy, no solution that requires the sacrifice of Black people to be successful will be a solution that works for Black people. The story of Black people is the story of our country’s efforts to live up to its founding values. Black lives matter, and Black education matters, because everyone’s freedom matters. And only when Black folks are safe to both learn, and live, will all Americans be free.” Read the full essay .

A Teacher’s View: 2020 Can Be an Opportunity for Us to Hone Our Craft and Become Better Educators. We Must Not Waste It

Instruction: In just a few short months, contributor Mandy Peyrani’s city of Houston has experienced massive challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as nurses work on the front lines battling the coronavirus, educators are on the front lines of a battle against learning loss. Teachers have always been heroes — and this moment, she writes, presents an opportunity like never before to show the world why that’s true . Despite unprecedented instructional challenges, distance learning can be viewed as a once-in-a-generation chance for teachers to hone their craft. In virtual classrooms, instructional coaches can efficiently dip in and out of lessons, offering immediate feedback, and in schools where the best educator on a given topic delivers the lesson, colleagues can witness that educator’s pedagogical techniques, gauge the response from the class and then integrate them into their own toolkits — a kind of real-time professional development. “Teachers everywhere can and should meet this moment to show just how important we are to eventually achieving normalcy amid a pandemic — and to exemplify the difference we can make, particularly for kids who need our support most.” Read the full essay .

Andrew Rotherham: From Homeschooling to the Digital Divide to Philanthropy, 10 Questions About COVID-19 and the Future of Education

2021 and Beyond: Considering how little we knew about coronavirus in May, it was striking to contributor Andrew Rotherham how much certainty there was about different aspects of the crisis playing out in real time. The education world was no exception; despite a generally haphazard response, a surprising certitude about what would work and not work or happen or not happen was pervasive . Whether it was ed tech boosters or teachers union leaders, everyone’s take seemed to line up with their priors from before the novel coronavirus struck, even as the situation seems to call for radical pragmatism. But working with stakeholders around the country made Rotherham certain only about the uncertainty. From homeschooling and the digital divide to the quality of curriculum, real estate and education philanthropy, here were 10 questions he started asking during the first wave of the pandemic. Read the full essay .

John Bailey & Olivia Shaw: How Are Families Navigating COVID-19? This Week-by-Week Survey of 500 Parents Has Some Answers

Parent Perceptions: The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of millions of Americans, but for parents, it has created a unique set of challenges . Many suddenly found themselves homeschooling their kids, working from home, facing reduced hours at their jobs or, in some cases, unemployed. To better understand how parents are navigating these challenges, the American Enterprise Institute is analyzing weekly surveys, conducted by Echelon Insights, of 500 public school parents. The results of these surveys, which began in April, provide a unique insight into the concerns and experiences of parents through their evolving responses to COVID-19, and can help leaders with their plans for reopening schools. Contributors John Bailey and Olivia Shaw break down the top findings. Read the full analysis .

Marguerite Roza & Katie Silberstein: Pandemic-Fueled Financial Turbulence Is Hitting School Districts Across the Country. 5 Big Things to Watch For

School Finances: It’s tough to overstate just how much the pandemic is asking of school districts and their financial leaders, write contributors Marguerite Roza and Katie Silberstein of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. They’re being asked to budget in the face of whiplash-inducing on-again, off-again reopening scenarios — all set against a backdrop of collapsing state revenues for K-12 education. At Edunomics Lab, they’ve been tracking districts’ budget decisions in the wake of the pandemic-triggered financial upheaval, and while their effort doesn’t provide an exhaustive national picture, it does offer a snapshot of a fast-moving situation . What they’re seeing are some short-term district actions that could have significant — and, in some cases, troubling — long-term ramifications. Among these are awarding emergency financial powers, tapping reserve funds and locking in spending for services that students can’t access while learning at home. “While none of us wished for this wildly uncertain future,” they write, “here we are. The essential job description for district financial leaders continues to be one of leveraging limited resources to maximize student learning. But doing that job is now immensely more complicated than at any time in recent history.” Read the full analysis .

Conor Williams: Coronavirus Pandemic Reveals the Reality — and the Risk — of America’s Child Safety Net Being Its Public Schools

School Communities: The angst that accompanied the decision by many superintendents to close schools in the spring — especially in big urban centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles — was not all about lost learning. If the calculation were merely about missed classroom time vs. public health and safety, the choice would have been simpler. But as contributor Conor Williams explains, our public schools, which serve a majority of the nation’s low-income students, are much more than learning centers. They are where students are fed, receive medical, dental and mental health services and even wash their clothes . As Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference in March, “Public education is also this state’s child care system. It is this nation’s child care system,” meaning schools allow parents to work and society to function. The coronavirus crisis, Williams writes, “illuminates just how much we now ask of our public education system. That’s the real question. As Americans spend the next few weeks managing their isolated, individual anxieties, it’s worth asking whether the cancellation of classes should mean that large numbers of children go without food.” Read the full essay .

David Steiner & Daniel Weisberg: When Students Go Back to School, Too Many Will Start the Year Behind. Here’s How to Catch Them Up — in Real Time

Learning Loss: It’s September 2021. You are a 10th-grade English teacher. Your curriculum says teach George Orwell’s novel 1984 , but half your class lacks the vocabulary and interpretive skills to read the book. So you ask those students to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver , a seventh-grade text, instead. Versions of this scene will play out in thousands of classrooms across the country next year, as students who have missed months of learning time finally return to classrooms far behind academically. Giving those students lower-level work to help them catch up — or, in the more extreme version, asking them to repeat an entire grade — has good intentions and a certain logic. It’s also largely ineffective, write contributors David Steiner and Daniel Weisberg; rather than delay access to grade-level material for students who’ve fallen behind, accelerate it, doing focused work with the less-prepared students before the whole class encounters the text. Done right, these interventions can give students who are lagging the ability to handle grade-level assignments at the same time as their peers. ”Even in the best-case scenario, mastering an entirely new approach to catching students up will take time. That’s okay. Just trying to give every child a real chance to do grade-level work, however imperfectly, will lead to far better results than picking and choosing who gets those opportunities. … In the aftermath of this crisis, schools will have an opportunity to provide students, especially marginalized students, with far better academic experiences than they did before. It starts with a commitment to accelerating learning instead of ratcheting it ever downward.” Read the full essay .

Morgan Polikoff & Daniel Silver: Getting Testy About Testing — K-12 Parents Support Canceling Standardized Testing this Spring. That Might Not Be a Good Idea

Accountability: In March, with students suddenly learning from home, the U.S. Department of Education granted states a blanket exemption from standardized testing. The decision was relatively straightforward, as there was virtually no infrastructure in place for securely administering high-stakes exams remotely. But with many schools at least partially reopening in the fall, deciding what to do about standardized testing this coming spring is anything but . It’s a complex issue, with historically stressful circumstances for students and teachers on one side and crucially important data on the other. One thing, though is clear, write contributors Daniel Silver and Morgan Polikoff of the University of Southern California: Parents want the tests canceled. The Understanding America Study, administered by the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research to a nationally representative sample of 1,335 U.S. K-12 households, found the proportion who “support” or “strongly support” such a move has risen steadily from 43 percent in mid-April to 64 percent in mid-October. Read their full analysis of why canceling exams, even with all their challenges, might not be a good idea .

Mahnaz Charania & Julia Freeland Fisher: Mapping Students’ Support Networks Is Key to Supporting Their Remote Learning Success. How Schools Can Make That Happen

Student Supports: Despite educators’ valiant efforts this past spring, many students still struggled to connect to their peers, teachers and counselors. Some went missing from virtual classes altogether, leaving teachers and principals scrambling to find them. Others, particularly middle and high school students, reported a troubling lack of people to turn to for academic and emotional help . These levels of disconnection threaten both students’ well-being and their academic progress. Surrounding students with an interconnected web of positive relationships is the foundation of healthy youth development, write contributors Mahnaz Charania and Julia Freeland Fisher. And within that web, access to what researchers dub a “person on the ground” — a mentor, tutor, parent or neighbor who is physically present to offer support — is a proven, critical ingredient to successful distance learning. Schools that understand the quantity and quality of relationships at their students’ disposal will be well positioned to sustain their well-being and academic progress in the coming year, whether campuses open or remain closed. Read the full analysis .

Kimberly A. Smith: A Call to Action — Black Educators Need White Co-Conspirators to Combat Racism in Schools and Empower Our Students to Succeed

Racism: The image of George Floyd gasping for air held symbolic resonance for contributor Kimberly A. Smith — racism in America’s schools, she writes, is suffocating Black students. But as a Black woman working in education, she knows the system cannot be changed solely by Black leaders or educators; it is centered in whiteness, so transformation resides in the privilege afforded to white leaders, from policymakers to nonprofit executives to superintendents. Hence, the need for “co-conspirators” willing to be unapologetically anti-racist, committed to listening and learning, willing to cede power while using privilege to invite others to lead , uncompromising in providing high-quality education for Black children and prepared to take political risks to advance their needs. The work, she says, must be done in full and equitable partnership with Black leaders in order to shape the pillars of an education institution that values and celebrates Black students. “I seek to identify a national coalition of white education co-conspirators willing to use their privilege to catalyze anti-racist actions in partnership, advocacy and support of Black leaders, with the goal of creating the conditions for Black students to thrive.” Read the full essay .

A Principal’s View: Social-Emotional Learning Is More Important Than Ever. Here’s How We Do It Virtually at My School

Social-Emotional Learning: As Principal Sara Carlson Striegel prepared to launch the new virtual school year in August, they were working to ensure students have access to high-quality academic resources and teacher guidance. But just as important was for students and teachers to come together in support of their mental health. Last fall, the school launched a social-emotional learning program, Compass Circles, which provides a framework for teachers to host regular meetings with small groups of students. When in person, participants sit in a circle and go through structured rituals where they discuss how they are doing emotionally and support their peers and colleagues in doing the same. When schools began shutting down last spring, they moved their Circle practice online using video conferencing platforms . Once a week, third- through fifth-graders join a Zoom room with other members of their Circle and go through the same sequence they would have in person. From deep-breathing exercises and emotional check-ins to “badge work” and a closing cheer, Principal Striegel describes how this SEL practice works online and the benefits it provides in keeping the school community healthy and connected. Read the full essay .

Go Deeper: See all our top coverage from 2020 in The 74’s ‘Best Of’ Roundups . Get our latest news, commentary and exclusives delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for The 74 Newsletter .

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What Is the Purpose of School?

This story is part of a special project called Big Ideas in which EdWeek reporters ask hard questions about K-12 education’s biggest challenges and offer insights based on their extensive coverage and expertise.

Very early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, I wrote a story to mark the shuttering of almost every single public school in the nation . It concluded on a hopeful note about a possible wake-up call regarding the incredible number of invisible ways schools serve 50 million children and their families that often go unappreciated.

“There is the specter of a rejuvenation in Americans’ attitudes toward schools, or at least a recognition that the role they play as a provider of social services is indispensable, and possibly even that those functions ought to be reinforced so that schools aren’t left alone to face future crises,” I concluded.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

Instead, there are rumblings that schools could be standing on less solid civic footing than they were before the pandemic—at least when measured by the most tangible factor available: enrollment. It has notably declined, even as home schooling has increased and school choice advocates work to expand tax-credit scholarships and other programs , partly in response to schools’ perceived failings.

What in fact reemerged in public discourse is a long-standing debate that’s often papered over in K-12 education: Americans, including our educators, are divided on what they believe schools’ core role should be.

Is it to convey knowledge and information and prepare students for their futures? Is it to provide guaranteed child care so that the economy can hum along? Is it to provide indispensable welfare services?

How to balance these functions appropriately is a question that will probably never be definitively answered to the approval of all. But it is a key one for districts to revisit as they decide what to do with a mammoth, but time-limited infusion of federal funding.

After all, how districts choose to spend that money serves a symbolic role as well as reflects how they’ve weighed the question of their core role. It conveys what they value, how they plan to reach it—and, importantly, what they feel they can manage.

In part, this tension is reemerging because families depended on schools during the pandemic in large numbers and in big ways. Arguably, they were perhaps the only real infrastructure we had to reach 50 million students and their families. But what we also learned, if we hadn’t already, is that that infrastructure is stretched, creaky, and, yes, not particularly efficient.

Consider, for example, schools’ remarkable shift to remote learning programs in the space of just a few months. Most schools offer one-to-one programs, devices, or internet access—despite the United States’ pointed failure to invest in broadband as a public utility .

And many will be shouldering the responsibility for seamless online learning in perpetuity, especially because of the concerns wrought by the Delta variant.

Schools also rapidly expanded the other social services they offered. Thousands of them used school lunch flexibility to expand the distribution of school meals. Others set up home-visiting programs and knocked on doors to find missing students, and still others are trying to coordinate housing in response to an epidemic of homelessness .

A recent EdWeek Research Center survey showed just how far-reaching some of these services are. It found that 63 percent of administrators reported that their district provided or subsidized internet services; 38 percent work in districts or schools that offered food pantries above and beyond their regular school meal programs; 37 percent said the district or school offered health services; and a third provided laundry facilities.

The pandemic showed the cracks in this network as needs grew more acute and as urgency ran up against schools’ built-in bureaucracies and resources.

Is it fair to ask schools to serve all these roles? More to the point, is it good policy? Is it wise?

Even our nation’s debate over so-called critical race theory (now a thoroughly misappropriated term) points to what the public assumes about schools’ abilities: Believing that schools are capable of widespread indoctrination implicitly means believing that they possess an extraordinary power to teach these things coherently, even though the evidence suggests that core reading, math, and science instruction, even within the same school, lacked cohesion from grade to grade before the pandemic.

So, here I ask: Is it fair to ask schools to serve all these roles? More to the point, is it good policy ? Is it wise ?

School systems are by the very way they’re set up—via local boards with built-in turnover—slow to adapt to new roles. If society expects schools to take them on, we need to consider how to do it well.

The expanding role of schools into the largest social-welfare providers in the country is not a new phenomenon, according to education historians like Campbell Scribner, who teaches at the University of Maryland.

They point out that the transformation of U.S. schools from centers of teaching and learning into places that serve social-welfare functions accelerated between 1900 and 1930, even as other national policies like universal health care did not gain traction.

This is partly the result of the intellectual foundations of U.S. welfare policy, which were—and continue to be—structured by centuries-old ideas of dividing the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor. Children fall into the first category—so much so that many programs, from the first cash-aid welfare program in 1935 through the recently expanded Child Tax Credit, are directly aimed at them.

Most of these school-based additions, like health centers, nurses, and social workers, have ultimately proved to be broadly popular with the public, even though they were all controversial at the time.

Less commonly understood, though, is that schools didn’t shed the responsibilities they already had during this expansion. And as politicians have scaled back supports for other social programs, the resulting challenges—drug epidemics, vaping, gun violence, severe weather events, a pandemic—have been foisted by default on schools.

The massive decline in referrals to child-welfare agencies during the pandemic testifies to the extent to which schools play an important role in protecting children via the multiple lines of view they have on them. But this surveillance cuts both ways, too, as the debate about school policing and racism in schools underscores .

If anything, the pandemic added yet another duty to the school district’s roster, that of epidemiologist. At least initially, state officials passed the buck on issues like masking and social distancing , forcing 14,000 districts with little health experience to make consequential health choices—and to endure furious backlash.

What is the best way to integrate academics and social services?

If you have gotten this far, you probably agree with me that it’s imperative, 18 months after COVID-19 changed the world, to consider anew the fundamental question of what schools are for.

We might, as a starting point, agree that academic learning should be their key function. And we might also agree that students will face difficulty learning if they are not fed, clothed, and nurtured. But we have to think about how schools can do all that they do sustainably and effectively, particularly as they cope with more mandates and expectations from legislators.

For a while, there was a trend both in the federal government and in cities toward interagency collaboration to coordinate an expanding roster of services. These do not, to put it frankly, have a great track record because of the siloed nature of agencies.

In one continually infuriating example, the U.S. departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development still do not agree on a common definition for homelessness, which means cities cannot serve the same populations via the two different funding streams.

Perhaps the most promising model is actually a bottom-up one.

The community schools movement aims to build academic and social-service partnerships on school campuses. And a recent review of 19 studies examining the approach found that on balance, the approach seems to produce academic benefits.

But the research also found that there’s no “concrete recipe” for how to structure these partnerships in ways that consistently produce results, no clear road map on how to deploy funding or personnel. (It’s a truism in education to say that we know the “what” but often lack the “how.” In this case, it applies perfectly.)

I was feeling quite blue about all this as I was researching, but I’m reminded that public schools are also resilient. The culture-war discussions and disagreements about how to reopen safely may be loud right now, but parents generally do value schools’ expansive roles and give their own schools good marks even during the pandemic.

The split among Black and white parents on their trust in schools, however, is a warning sign that this trust is not automatic. It must be carefully nurtured.

The funding is a turning point that we can either build on or one we can waste.

We have an opportunity to do that through the extraordinary $123 billion federal recovery package for schools. The funding is a turning point that we can either build on or one we can waste.

It’s a symbolically important investment, because it signals that there’s still a commitment to public schools. But it’s not really a solution to the definitional problem I’ve been discussing here, so much as it is a stopgap. It could create new dependencies—or expectations—if districts aren’t careful.

At bottom, districts will need to invest in efforts that they can sustain—or use the funding, in part, to launch partnerships with local social-service agencies to make their new investments stretch. They’ll need to devise some kind of organizing structure that doesn’t run up against the silos and dysfunction I’ve outlined above. And they’ll need to begin with an honest assessment of what their schools can do now and what they’ll need help doing in the future.

I know what your question is, and, no, I don’t know what this structure should look like or how it should be governed or staffed.

I do know, though, that it’s imperative to start thinking about one. Because the pandemic won’t be the last major crisis to strain schools—and I, for one, want them to be strong enough to outlast the next one.

A version of this article appeared in the September 15, 2021 edition of Education Week as What Is The Purpose of School?

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Americans Have Given Up on Public Schools. That’s a Mistake.

The current debate over public education underestimates its value—and forgets its purpose.

Public schools have always occupied prime space in the excitable American imagination. For decades, if not centuries, politicians have made hay of their supposed failures and extortions. In 2004, Rod Paige, then George W. Bush’s secretary of education, called the country’s leading teachers union a “terrorist organization.” In his first education speech as president, in 2009, Barack Obama lamented the fact that “despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we’ve let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us.”

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President Donald Trump used the occasion of his inaugural address to bemoan the way “beautiful” students had been “deprived of all knowledge” by our nation’s cash-guzzling schools. Educators have since recoiled at the Trump administration’s budget proposal detailing more than $9 billion in education cuts, including to after-school programs that serve mostly poor children. These cuts came along with increased funding for school-privatization efforts such as vouchers. Our secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has repeatedly signaled her support for school choice and privatization, as well as her scorn for public schools, describing them as a “dead end” and claiming that unionized teachers “care more about a system, one that was created in the 1800s, than they care about individual students.”

Few people care more about individual students than public-school teachers do, but what’s really missing in this dystopian narrative is a hearty helping of reality: 21st-century public schools, with their record numbers of graduates and expanded missions, are nothing close to the cesspools portrayed by political hyperbole. This hyperbole was not invented by Trump or DeVos, but their words and proposals have brought to a boil something that’s been simmering for a while—the denigration of our public schools, and a growing neglect of their role as an incubator of citizens.

Americans have in recent decades come to talk about education less as a public good, like a strong military or a noncorrupt judiciary, than as a private consumable. In an address to the Brookings Institution, DeVos described school choice as “a fundamental right.” That sounds appealing. Who wouldn’t want to deploy their tax dollars with greater specificity? Imagine purchasing a gym membership with funds normally allocated to the upkeep of a park.

My point here is not to debate the effect of school choice on individual outcomes: The evidence is mixed, and subject to cherry-picking on all sides. I am more concerned with how the current discussion has ignored public schools’ victories, while also detracting from their civic role. Our public-education system is about much more than personal achievement; it is about preparing people to work together to advance not just themselves but society. Unfortunately, the current debate’s focus on individual rights and choices has distracted many politicians and policy makers from a key stakeholder: our nation as a whole. As a result, a cynicism has taken root that suggests there is no hope for public education. This is demonstrably false. It’s also dangerous.

The idea that popular education might best be achieved privately is nothing new, of course. The Puritans, who saw education as necessary to Christian practice, experimented with the idea, and their experience is telling. In 1642, they passed a law—the first of its kind in North America—requiring that all children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts receive an education. Puritan legislators assumed, naively, that parents would teach children in their homes; however, many of them proved unable or unwilling to rise to the task. Five years later, the legislators issued a corrective in the form of the Old Deluder Satan Law: “It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures,” the law intoned, “it is therefore ordered … that everie Township [of 100 households or more] in this Jurisdiction” be required to provide a trained teacher and a grammar school, at taxpayer expense.

Almost 400 years later, contempt for our public schools is commonplace. Americans, and especially Republicans, report that they have lost faith in the system, but notably, nearly three-quarters of parents rate their own child’s school highly; it’s other people’s schools they worry about. Meanwhile, Americans tend to exaggerate our system’s former glory. Even in the 1960s, when international science and math tests were first administered, the U.S. was never at the top of the rankings and was often near the bottom.

Not only is the idea that American test scores were once higher a fiction, but in some cases they have actually improved over time, especially among African American students. Since the early 1970s, when the Department of Education began collecting long-term data, average reading and math scores for 9- and 13-year-olds have risen significantly.

These gains have come even as the student body of American public schools has expanded to include students with ever greater challenges. For the first time in recent memory, a majority of U.S. public-school students come from low-income households. The student body includes a larger proportion than ever of students who are still learning to speak English. And it includes many students with disabilities who would have been shut out of public school before passage of the 1975 law now known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, which guaranteed all children a “free appropriate public education.”

The fantasy that in some bygone era U.S. test scores were higher has prevented us from acknowledging other possible explanations for America’s technological, scientific, and cultural preeminence. In her 2013 book, Reign of Error , Diane Ravitch—an education historian and former federal education official who originally supported but later became a critic of reforms like No Child Left Behind—cites surprising evidence that a nation’s higher position on an international ranking of test scores actually predicted lower per capita GDP decades later, compared with countries whose test scores ranked worse. Other findings complicate the picture, but at a minimum we can say that there is no clear connection between test scores and a nation’s economic success. Surely it’s reasonable to ask whether some of America’s success might derive not from factors measured by standardized tests, but from other attributes of our educational system. U.S. public schools, at their best, have encouraged a unique mixing of diverse people, and produced an exceptionally innovative and industrious citizenry.

Our lost faith in public education has led us to other false conclusions, including the conviction that teachers unions protect “bad apples.” Thanks to articles and documentaries such as Waiting for “Superman , ” most of us have an image seared into our brain of a slew of know-nothing teachers, removed from the classroom after years of sleeping through class, sitting in state-funded “rubber rooms” while continuing to draw hefty salaries. If it weren’t for those damned unions, or so the logic goes, we could drain the dregs and hire real teachers. I am a public-school-certified teacher whose own children attended public schools, and I’ve occasionally entertained these thoughts myself.

But unions are not the bogeyman we’re looking for. According to “The Myth of Unions’ Overprotection of Bad Teachers,” a well-designed study by Eunice S. Han, an economist at the University of Utah, school districts with strong unions actually do a better job of weeding out bad teachers and retaining good ones than do those with weak unions. This makes sense. If you have to pay more for something, you are more likely to care about its quality; when districts pay higher wages, they have more incentive to employ good teachers (and dispense with bad ones). And indeed, many of the states with the best schools have reached that position in the company of strong unions. We can’t say for sure that unions have a positive impact on student outcomes—the evidence is inconclusive. But findings like Han’s certainly undermine reformers’ claims.

In defending our public schools, I do not mean to say they can’t be improved. But if we are serious about advancing them, we need to stop scapegoating unions and take steps to increase and improve the teaching pool. Teacher shortages are leaving many states in dire straits: The national shortfall is projected to exceed 100,000 teachers by next year.

That many top college graduates hesitate to join a profession with low wages is no great surprise. For many years, talented women had few career alternatives to nursing and teaching; this kept teacher quality artificially high. Now that women have more options, if we want to attract strong teachers, we need to pay competitive salaries. As one observer put it, if you cannot find someone to sell you a Lexus for a few dollars, that doesn’t mean there is a car shortage.

Oddly, the idea of addressing our supply-and-demand problem the old-fashioned American way, with a market-based approach, has been largely unappealing to otherwise free-market thinkers. And yet raising salaries would have cascading benefits beyond easing the teacher shortage. Because salaries are associated with teacher quality, raising pay would likely improve student outcomes. Massachusetts and Connecticut have attracted capable people to the field with competitive pay, and neither has an overall teacher shortage.

Apart from raising teacher pay, we should expand the use of other strategies to attract talent, such as forgivable tuition loans, service fellowships, hardship pay for the most-challenging settings (an approach that works well in the military and the foreign service), and housing and child-care subsidies for teachers, many of whom can’t afford to live in the communities in which they teach. We can also get more serious about de-larding a bureaucracy that critics are right to denounce: American public schools are bloated at the top of the organizational pyramid, with too many administrators and not enough high-quality teachers in the classroom.

Where schools are struggling today, collectively speaking, is less in their transmission of mathematical principles or writing skills, and more in their inculcation of what it means to be an American. The Founding Fathers understood the educational prerequisites on which our democracy was based (having themselves designed it), and they had far grander plans than, say, beating the Soviets to the moon, or ensuring a literate workforce.

Thomas Jefferson, among other historical titans, understood that a functioning democracy required an educated citizenry, and crucially, he saw education as a public good to be included in the “articles of public care,” despite his preference for the private sector in most matters. John Adams, another proponent of public schooling, urged, “There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the expense of the people themselves.”

In the centuries since, the courts have regularly affirmed the special status of public schools as a cornerstone of the American democratic project. In its vigorous defenses of students’ civil liberties—to protest the Vietnam War, for example, or not to salute the flag—the Supreme Court has repeatedly held public schools to an especially high standard precisely because they play a unique role in fostering citizens.

This role isn’t limited to civics instruction; public schools also provide students with crucial exposure to people of different backgrounds and perspectives. Americans have a closer relationship with the public-school system than with any other shared institution. (Those on the right who disparagingly refer to public schools as “government schools” have obviously never been to a school-board meeting, one of the clearest examples anywhere of direct democracy in action.) Ravitch writes that “one of the greatest glories of the public school was its success in Americanizing immigrants.” At their best, public schools did even more than that, integrating both immigrants and American-born students from a range of backgrounds into one citizenry.

At a moment when our media preferences, political affiliations, and cultural tastes seem wider apart than ever, abandoning this amalgamating function is a bona fide threat to our future. And yet we seem to be headed in just that direction. The story of American public education has generally been one of continuing progress, as girls, children of color, and children with disabilities (among others) have redeemed their constitutional right to push through the schoolhouse gate. But in the past few decades, we have allowed schools to grow more segregated, racially and socioeconomically. (Charter schools, far from a solution to this problem, are even more racially segregated than traditional public schools.)

Simultaneously, we have neglected instruction on democracy. Until the 1960s, U.S. high schools commonly offered three classes to prepare students for their roles as citizens: Government, Civics (which concerned the rights and responsibilities of citizens), and Problems of Democracy (which included discussions of policy issues and current events). Today, schools are more likely to offer a single course. Civics education has fallen out of favor partly as a result of changing political sentiment. Some liberals have come to see instruction in American values—such as freedom of speech and religion, and the idea of a “melting pot”—as reactionary. Some conservatives, meanwhile, have complained of a progressive bias in civics education.

Especially since the passage of No Child Left Behind, the class time devoted to social studies has declined steeply. Most state assessments don’t cover civics material, and in too many cases, if it isn’t tested, it isn’t taught. At the elementary-school level, less than 40 percent of fourth-grade teachers say they regularly emphasize topics related to civics education.

So what happens when we neglect the public purpose of our publicly funded schools? The discussion of vouchers and charter schools, in its focus on individual rights, has failed to take into account American society at large. The costs of abandoning an institution designed to bind, not divide, our citizenry are high.

Already, some experts have noted a conspicuous link between the decline of civics education and young adults’ dismal voting rates. Civics knowledge is in an alarming state: Three-quarters of Americans can’t identify the three branches of government. Public-opinion polls, meanwhile, show a new tolerance for authoritarianism, and rising levels of antidemocratic and illiberal thinking. These views are found all over the ideological map, from President Trump, who recently urged the nation’s police officers to rough up criminal suspects, to, ironically, the protesters who tried to block DeVos from entering a Washington, D.C., public school in February.

We ignore public schools’ civic and integrative functions at our peril. To revive them will require good faith across the political spectrum. Those who are suspicious of public displays of national unity may need to rethink their aversion. When we neglect schools’ nation-binding role, it grows hard to explain why we need public schools at all. Liberals must also work to better understand the appeal of school choice, especially for families in poor areas where teacher quality and attrition are serious problems. Conservatives and libertarians, for their part, need to muster more generosity toward the institutions that have educated our workforce and fueled our success for centuries.

The political theorist Benjamin Barber warned in 2004 that “America as a commercial society of individual consumers may survive the destruction of public schooling. America as a democratic republic cannot.” In this era of growing fragmentation, we urgently need a renewed commitment to the idea that public education is a worthy investment, one that pays dividends not only to individual families but to our society as a whole.

About the Author

Public Opinion and the Public Schools: Three Essays on Americans' Education Policy Preferences

Houston, David M.

Learning About Schooling: The Effects of State Level Student Achievement Data on Public Opinion There is a growing literature on the effects of student achievement data on public opinion. Prior research suggests that individuals tend to overestimate student achievement in their area. The provision of current achievement levels tends to cause a decrease in confidence in the public schools. In some cases, it appears to increase support for various education reforms. However, previous experimental studies measured outcomes immediately after the provision of information about education performance, making it difficult to distinguish between long-lasting information effects and the more ephemeral consequences of priming. As a result, we do not know how large these effects truly are nor how long they last. I address these concerns by conducting a survey experiment in which I provide state level student achievement data to a randomly assigned treatment group and then measure political attitudes on education issues at three separate times: immediately, after one day, and after ten days. There is evidence that the provision of state level student achievement data temporarily reduces individuals’ confidence in their state school systems, but this effect does not persist after ten days. Schoolhouse Democracy: Education Policy Responsiveness in the States The link between public opinion and enacted public policy is referred to as policy responsiveness in the political science literature. Using new estimates of state level public opinion, I explore the relationship between support for increased education spending and average per pupil expenditures at the state level from 1984 to 2013. Within a given year, I find a modest, positive relationship between statewide public opinion on education spending and statewide per pupil expenditures. On average, states with greater support for education spending also tend to spend more per pupil. Within states over time, an increase in support for greater education spending is also associated with an increase in actual spending. However, after controlling for both between-state differences and common trends across states over time, I observe a negative relationship between public opinion and education spending levels. In circumstances in which spending levels are low relative to the state average and low relative to the year average, support for increased education spending tends to be high for that state and year. Additionally, education spending responsiveness tends to be worse in states with weak or non-existent teachers unions. Polarization and the Politics of Education: What Moves Partisan Opinion? This study explores the conditions under which partisan polarization and de-polarization occur with respect to public opinion on education issues. To guide this investigation, I pose three general questions. First, does the provision of policy-relevant information cause partisans to converge on the same position? Second, can signals from political elites with ideologically moderate views move partisans closer together? And third, does direct experience with public schools reduce the political abstraction with which one evaluates education policies? I repurpose and extend 17 existing survey experiments to help answer the first two questions, and I conduct a non-experimental data analysis to investigate the third. I find consistent evidence that the provision of education spending information has de-polarizing consequences, but the effects of ideologically moderate elite signals on polarization vary by year. I also find tentative evidence in favor of a link between direct experience with public schools and reduced polarization on education issues.

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United States
Education and state
School management and organization
Political science
Public schools
Education--Public opinion

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Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://doi.org/10.1001/archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2009/05/blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

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Krishna Janmashtami Essay in English for School Students and Kids

Janmashtami Essay in English: Check here 10 lines, small paragraphs and short and long essays on Shree Krishna Janmashtami 2024 in English.

Janmashtami 2024 Date

According to Drik Panchang, Krishna Janmashtami 2024 falls on two consecutive days. This year marks the 5251th birthday of Lord Krishna. Devotees will celebrate Janmashtami on 26th August.

Janmashtami Holiday 2024

Short and long essay on krishna janmashtami in english, 10 lines essay on krishna janmashtami in english.

Line 1: Krishna Janmashtami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna.

Line 2: Lord Krishna is the eighth avatar of Vishnu, the supreme god in Hinduism.

Line 3: He is believed to have been born in Mathura, India, on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada.

Line 4: Krishna is a popular deity in Hinduism and is worshipped for his playful and mischievous nature, as well as his wisdom and compassion.

Line 5: Janmashtami is a major festival in India and is celebrated with great enthusiasm.

Line 6: Devotees fast and pray on this day, and temples are decorated and illuminated.

Line 7: There are also many cultural events and performances held on Janmashtami, such as dramas, dances, and music concerts.

Line 8: Krishna Janmashtami is a time for Hindus to celebrate the birth of their beloved deity and reaffirm their faith in him.

Line 9: The festival is also known as Gokulashtami, as it is believed that Krishna was born in Gokul, a village near Mathura.

Line 10: On the day of Janmashtami, temples are decorated with flowers, lamps, and arches. Devotees offer prayers and sing bhajans (hymns) to Krishna.

In some parts of India, there is a tradition of breaking clay pots (called matka phod) to symbolize the destruction of evil.
Janmashtami is also a time for family and friends to gather and celebrate. People feast on traditional dishes, such as kheer (rice pudding) and Puran poli (sweet stuffed flatbread).

Shri Krishna Janmashtami Paragraph In English

Janmashtami, celebrated in August/ September, honours the birth of Lord Sri Krishna, the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. He holds immense significance in Hinduism. The festival is marked by enthusiasm and profound devotion amongst Hindus. Lord Krishna's birth, occurring on the 8th day of the Krishna Paksha / Dark Fortnight, in the auspicious month of Bhadon (August-September), is celebrated at midnight. This is because it is believed that Shri Krishna was born during that time. To express their gratitude and devotion, devotees observe a day-long fast leading up to the midnight celebration. Toddlers and young kids are dressed as Lord Krishna and Radha, enhancing the festive spirit. Additionally, Krishna Leela - dramatic enactments of Krishna's life stories, are performed, infusing vibrant energy into the celebrations. Janmashtami is a festival cherished by people of all ages. Notably, children are actively engaged in the observance with rituals to exhibit their reverence for Lord Krishna. The festival is a testament to the profound love and affection that devotees hold for Lord Krishna and is marked by joyful celebrations that resonate with the spirit of devotion.

500 Words Essay On Krishna Janmashtami

Introduction

Krishna Janmashtami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu, the supreme God in Hinduism. It is one of the most important festivals in Hinduism and is celebrated with great enthusiasm all over India.

Shri Krishna Janmashtami

The festival is observed on the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadrapada, which falls in August or September. On this day, Krishna mandirs are decorated with flowers, lights, and other festive items. Devotees fast and pray to Krishna. Many devotees stay awake all night to commemorate His birth as it is believed that He was born at midnight.

There are many different ways to celebrate Krishna Janmashtami. While some people read the scriptures that tell the story of Krishna's life, others sing Krishna bhajans (hymns) in His praise. In some parts of India, there is also the tradition of doing Krishna-leela or enacting the story of Krishna's birth through a play.

A popular tradition on Krishna Janmashtami is Dahi-Handi or Matki-phor, which is to break a clay pot filled with milk and yoghurt. This is done to symbolise the destruction of evil. It is also an act of the devotee’s love for God as Krishna is known for His naughty childhood. Another tradition is to feed a poor person or donate food to a shelter.

Krishna Janmashtami is a time for Hindus to celebrate the birth of their beloved deity and to reaffirm their faith in Him. It is also a time for family and friends to gather and enjoy each other's company.

Krishna is often depicted as a young boy playing with his friends. He is also known for his love of music and dance. Krishna is a complex and multifaceted deity who represents many different aspects of the human experience.

The Importance of Krishna

Krishna is a popular deity in Hinduism who is worshipped for his playful and mischievous nature, as well as his wisdom and compassion. He is considered to be the embodiment of love, compassion, and playfulness. He is also known for his mischievousness and his ability to overcome obstacles. The story of Krishna's life is full of adventure and excitement.

The Significance of the Festival

Krishna Janmashtami is a joyous festival that is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. It is a time to celebrate the birth of a beloved deity, to reaffirm one's faith, and to spend time with family and friends.

The festival is also a time for Hindus to reflect on the teachings of Krishna. Krishna is a wise and compassionate teacher who taught his followers the importance of love, compassion, and service to others. His teachings are still relevant today and can help people to lead more fulfilling and meaningful lives.

Krishna Janmashtami is a colourful and festive occasion that is celebrated with great joy and enthusiasm. In conclusion, Krishna Janmashtami is an exuberant festival marked by jubilant celebrations. It serves as a reminder to honour the birth of Lord Krishna, strengthen devotion, and relish moments with loved ones. This occasion also invites us all to follow Lord Shree Krishna’s teachings about love, hard work, social relations, karma and so on, imparting timeless wisdom for enriched lives.

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Gillings School academic coordinators champion student success

August 22, 2024

Adia Ware talks to students at a wellness event.

When a student comes to the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, they are embarking on a major journey that can shape the course of their life. A journey that instills them with the skills and knowledge to tackle complex health challenges and improve community well-being.

And much like public health, the challenges students can encounter while at the Gillings School are multi-faceted. Students are responsible for much more than their academic progress. They have jobs, families, friendships and other life commitments that they must balance while in school.

To help students succeed at the number one public school of public health, the Gillings School employs a team of academic coordinators who can meet students wherever they are on their path to a degree. Like advisors or coaches, academic coordinators partner with students to find answers to questions, connect them to experts and mentors, provide practical advice to resolve difficulties, or offer words of encouragement when needed.

Trina Gabriel

“I liken it to being an air traffic controller,” said Academic Coordinator Trina Gabriel , “because students have different flight paths. I’m not the one flying the plane, but I’m there to help them on their journey.”

“I see myself as a big brother in some ways,” said Academic Coordinator Will Gillison . “Being in college can give students a feeling of impostor syndrome, so I want them to feel comfortable bringing any concern to me. Because if we only cared about one aspect of their lives, students would know.”

Each student is assigned an academic coordinator when they join the Gillings School, and they serve as a student’s primary academic advisor, guiding students through degree milestones from the beginning through completion. Academic coordinators are assigned to specific degrees and serve all students under this degree or concentration. Some, like Gillison, focus on residential students in certain Master of Public Health (MPH) concentrations, while others, like Gabriel, focus on online MPH@UNC students.

And while they are called academic coordinators, they are ready and eager to answer questions on just about anything!

U’Ronda Higgs

“We build a lot of knowledge in our role,” explained U’Ronda Higgs, MS , assistant director for academic advising. “It doesn’t mean we have all the answers, but many of the challenges students face are the same, regardless of whether they’re in undergraduate or graduate programs. They may just show up differently. For example, my undergraduate students may be dealing with parents who have illnesses, while my graduate students may be parents themselves. So, our role is helping students navigate not only their education but oftentimes how that education fits into where they’re at in their life.”

Melissa Hobgood

“Academic policy and procedure – we can quote that with our eyes closed, but we also realize that students have a life outside of these four walls,” said Melissa Hobgood , who is an academic coordinator for non-MPH students in the Department of Biostatistics. “It’s up to each student how in-depth they want to talk with us, but we’re here to support them in any way we can.”

All students can benefit from the help that academic coordinators provide in building study habits and laying out a degree plan. But there are many areas where their support might look different for each student. Some may need help managing relationships with professors, fellow students in their cohort or project management. Others may need to be connected to offices at the University that provide financial aid support, mental health resources, instructional technology, accommodations or outlets to express personal concerns.

“There’s a number of different reasons that students might need to click on a link and schedule a meeting with me, but I want them to know that if you don’t know what to do, or you can’t figure it out, then reach out,” said Adia Ware, MS , assistant director of academic advising. “I might not be the person to solve the problem for you, but I’m connected to someone who can.”

The work of an academic coordinator is unique to the Gillings School and, in some ways, a reflection of the public health mindset: one that approaches challenges from a holistic perspective. While students also build relationships with faculty mentors, who can answer specific questions about their program or area of study or help them gain a clearer picture of their future career in their field of interest, academic coordinators aim to build relationships that can help students thrive in every part of their Gillings School experience.

“It definitely feels like the work we do is a staple of public health,” said Higgs. “Student affairs as a whole is a public health hub for Gillings. We address all the needs that students have and do everything we can, because their success is a part of public health.”

The path to graduation may not look the same for every student, but no one has to walk it alone. Find your academic coordinator today and start connecting!

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at [email protected] .

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Choice and segregation collide as Madison County shutters rural schools

Mannika Hopkins talks with her fourth graders on the first day of school at Greenville Elementary in Greenville, Fla. on Aug. 14, 2024.

Thousands of students have left Florida’s public schools amid an explosive growth in school choice. Now districts are reckoning with the financial realities of empty seats in aging classrooms.

Tens of thousands of students have left Florida’s public schools in recent years amid an explosive expansion in school choice . Now, districts large and small are grappling with the harsh financial realities of empty seats in aging classrooms.

As some districts are being forced to close schools, administrators are facing another long-avoided reckoning: how to integrate students in buildings that remain racially and economically segregated .

In the Florida Panhandle, one tiny district plans to consolidate its last three stand-alone elementary schools into one campus because there aren’t enough students to cover the costs of keeping the doors open. But the Madison County School District's decision to do so has exposed tensions around race in a community where for years some white families have resisted integrating public schools.

“It’s the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about,” county school board member Katie Knight said.

“At the end of the day, these kids are going to have to interact with all people of races, skill sets, personality types. Trying to segregate our children is not an option.”

Segregation, integration, consolidation

Shirley Joseph is a product of Florida’s segregated schools — and was a Black student in some of the first integrated classes at one of the local high schools.

Now, as superintendent of Madison County’s public schools, it’s her job to close some of them.

There are fewer than 1,700 students left in traditional public schools in this rural county in the state's old cotton belt. Many families have moved away to places with more jobs and housing — or chosen other kinds of schooling. For those who remain, the schools provide more than just an education: All of Madison's students qualify for free meals because of the county’s poverty rate. One in three children there live in poverty.

“If we are to survive as a district,” Joseph said, “we have got to make the hard decisions.”

This month, Joseph walked the halls of the elementary campuses on their last first day of school, pointing out classroom after empty classroom.

One of the schools slated to close is Greenville Elementary, which has fewer than 100 students — roughly a third of the school’s capacity . When Florida schools were officially segregated, Joseph attended classes there at what was then called the Greenville Training School.

Generations of Black residents cherish the school's legacy in the tiny town of Greenville, where music legend Ray Charles grew up.

More than 50 years after desegregation, the school remains 85% Black . Class sizes have dwindled as the school struggles to hold onto certified teachers. State ratings of the school have fluctuated, but Greenville has been rated an “F” five times over the past decade for low rates of student achievement.

Fourth-grade teacher Mannika Hopkins had just eight students in her class when an Associated Press reporter visited recently.

“I hate it that it’s closing. This is my heart. This is our community. … This is us,” Hopkins said. “Who wants to move into a community that doesn’t have a school that’s close by?”

Starting next year, Greenville will consolidate with Lee and Pinetta elementary schools, which are predominantly white. All those students will be sent to Madison County Central School, a majority Black K-8 campus that's a 15- to 20-minute drive from the outlying elementary schools. The district hasn't announced yet which teachers will move to the consolidated school and which ones will be out of job.

School choice fuels declining enrollment

Madison County sits an hour east of Tallahassee in a region once dominated by cotton and tobacco plantations. A statue of a Confederate soldier still towers over the central park in the county seat of Madison.

The area has been losing students for years as birth rates decline, businesses close and families move to places with more jobs other than in the timber industry, trucking and working at the nearby state prison.

Other families have stayed but simply left the public schools.

For decades, Aucilla Christian Academy in neighboring Jefferson County has attracted some of the area’s wealthiest families. Established in 1970, Aucilla opened as a wave of new private schools sprang up across the South, founded by white people who opposed integration. Researchers call these “segregation academies,” and many of them remain mostly white. As of the 2021-22 school year, Aucilla’s student body was more than 90% white, according to federal data .

Madison families have pushed back against consolidation in the past: In 1998, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights stepped in when residents resisted plans to send students from predominantly white Lee to Central, the school that will soon receive the county's elementary schoolers. After the department got involved, the district went ahead with the plan.

Today, it’s arguably never been easier to leave Florida’s public schools. The chaos of COVID-19 pushed many families to try homeschooling or microschooling — tiny, private learning environments that often serve multiple families. And now, under Gov. Ron DeSantis, all students can qualify for taxpayer-funded vouchers worth about $8,000 a year to cover private school tuition, regardless of household income.

For families opposed to consolidation, Aucilla is a possible destination, along with Madison Creative Arts Academy, a public charter school.

The parents of 9-year-old Noel Brouillette hope she gets a seat at the Academy. It’s not about race, mom Nicole Brouillette said, but rather the majority Black Central school's reputation of having more fights. If Noel doesn't get into the charter school, the family might leave Madison County entirely.

The fourth-grader says she's heartbroken she can't stay at Pinetta Elementary.

"If I never went here, I would have never met my best friend," she said.

Other parents are considering homeschooling, like Alexis Molden. She said her sons love going to Lee Elementary, but she’s heard rumors about Central — that multiracial kids like hers get bullied there.

“I’ve heard that … it’s pretty much segregated,” Molden said. “You’ve got the white kids, the Black kids and then the mixed kids pretty much have to decide which side they’re going to.”

Katie Knight, the school board member, said that if she had a dollar for every rumor she heard about Central, she could retire.

Still, the county has a history.

When Joseph taught at Madison County High School a couple of decades ago, she said her students would sort themselves when they filed into her classroom — white kids on one side, Black kids on the other — until she’d make them change seats.

“Somehow we’ve got to find out: How do we mesh the communities?” the current superintendent said.

There's always talk about leaving the public schools, Joseph said, but she believes most families will stay. In the meantime, she’s focused on delivering the best education possible for the students she has — the ones who can’t leave.

Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Family Leader's Thanksgiving Family Forum, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa.

Loudoun County welcomes new schools and changes ahead of the school year

by John Gonzalez

A photo of the Loudoun County Public Schools bus (7News)

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) will begin classes Thursday morning. More than 83,000 students enrolled this year and the county's 99th and 100th schools are opening for the first time.

Henrietta Lacks Elementary and Watson Mountain Middle School were built to lower electricity costs with solar panels on the roof and automatic lights that shut off when classrooms are empty.

Dr. Aaron Spence returned as superintendent for his second school year.

After some tumultuous times, Dr. Spence spent a considerable amount of time during the last school year visiting and listening around the school district.

LCPS has an over 98% percent fill rate of all positions. LCPS has created the Division of Family and Community Engagement, which will consolidate family, community, and partner engagement. Staff heard extensive community feedback last school year that families need streamlined communications and a stronger way to engage with the division.

READ| Charles County schools to increase transparency with incident reports, Sheriff says

One of the largest and fastest-growing school systems in the state is also welcoming more than a dozen new principals. The superintendent wrote a statement saying, “Together, we will continue to build strong relationships, inspire hope, and create an environment where our students can thrive and reach their full potential."

LCPS is making significant efforts to combat chronic absenteeism. New numbers going into this new school year show a substantial decrease in schools with chronically absent students.

615 new licensed personnel have been hired for the new school year. 52% of them hold master’s degrees.

To better attract talent, the school system implemented signing bonuses for its new teachers with extra incentives for teachers in Special Education and Title I settings. LCPS has a new program to provide a structured, non-traditional learning environment for students in the disciplinary process in grades six to 12. The goals of the Alternative Program are to ensure students stay on track academically and outside the classroom.

LCPS has more than 750 buses covering more than 500 routes. The school division's buses log about 8 million miles transporting students annually. Families who are eligible for transportation service, but who will be transporting their children to school this year, should visit ParentVUE to opt their children out of bus service. This information will help the Transportation Department consolidate routes and operate with greater efficiency.

READ| New report details failures at Montgomery County Public Schools over electric bus fleet

“Our focus remains on fostering a positive school culture where every student and staff member feels valued and engaged,” added Spence.

Reports just released by the Virginia Department of Education show continued improvement in students.

For example, 90 percent passed the English Writing SOL test, an increase of nine points from 2023. 79% improved in Math.

New programs were formed including a Health and Medical Sciences (HAMSci) Academy. HAMSci Academy connects student interests with workforce needs.

In 2022, LCPS sent a survey to all parents in the division asking what areas of interest their children would be interested in studying -- health and medical sciences had the greatest interest with 44 percent of respondents indicating they were very interested.

That same year, the Loudoun Education Foundation and LCPS began hosting round table events with health and medical industry leaders to understand how best to create student programming that aligned with their workforce needs.

Through ongoing conversations, industry leaders worked alongside LCPS educators to help inform the curriculum and pathways offered at the HAMSci Academy. Industry partners also worked with LCPS to create a two-day, hands-on camp for middle school students to pique their interest in the health and medical fields.

LCPS launched a redesigned website on July 19. The website information can adapt content based on the device used to view it.

Updated navigation: The main menu and landing pages are organized to help find information efficiently.
Consistent school websites and pages: Clear and consistent school websites honor each school community's individuality while also ensuring a uniform look across sites.
Updated, user-friendly LCPS app: The new LCPS app provides an integrated and personalized window into what is happening across the Division and schools. Everything you want to know about your child's school experience can now be found at any time, like the Division's approved calendar, school board information and school lunch menus.

The app can be downloaded from Google Play or the App Stores. Additional information about the app is available on the LCPS website.

Stopfinder is the easy-to-use, all-in-one parent engagement app that provides families with their child’s bus location and the most accurate information about their child’s bus schedule in the palm of their hand. To sign up for Stopfinder, visit Transportation’s webpage. Let's Talk is the platform that replaced IssueTrak on July 1, as the Transportation Division's Concern Registry. This is where parents/guardians or the general public can submit questions, compliments and any concerns they may have regarding all things related to school transportation. Families are encouraged to check ParentVUE for updates to their child’s bus schedule.

Peabody Scholars share guidance to inform school voucher policy

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Aug 20, 2024, 1:59 PM

By Jenna Somers

During the 2024 legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly and Governor Bill Lee attempted to pass a statewide education scholarship account (ESA) program . ESAs—also called education savings accounts—are a type of voucher program that support not only private school tuition but other education-related expenses for families who opt-out of public education. Tennessee policymakers could not find agreement between competing bills proposed by Governor Lee , the Senate and the House , but Governor Lee has vowed to take up the debate again during the next legislative session.

Tennessee’s ESA bill proposals follow a trend of states passing a range of voucher policies in recent years. As Governor Lee and legislators across the country express commitments to pursuing these policies, the expertise of school choice scholars at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development may help to inform the decisions of policymakers, schools, and families. Peabody scholars study a broad spectrum of school choice policies and practices in the U.S. and other countries. Their work seeks to answer many questions concerning the economics of education, education equity, cultural impacts to education policy, and much more. At the heart of their scholarship is a simple, yet complex question: how should a pluralistic democracy educate its citizenry?

Why school choice?

The original argument for school choice in the U.S. was based in economics. In a 1955 essay , economist Milton Friedman argued that public education was a monopoly that needed to be broken up. While he recognized the importance of education to the vitality of a democracy, he argued that government need not and should not operate as the sole provider of schooling in the U.S. Rather, government could provide the funds for families to choose from schools in an open market, where competition would increase education quality. With this philosophy in mind and with an interest in innovating new pedagogy, school choice proponents began the modern school choice movement in the early 1990s with charter schools and small, targeted voucher programs.

“Another rationale for school choice, especially in the public school sector with charters and magnets, is to disentangle the relationship between school quality and neighborhoods because middle- and upper-middle-class parents can, in fact, choose their school by virtue of the neighborhood where they can afford to buy a house; whereas school choice allows parents to have access to schools, including private schools, that are outside their neighborhood if the schools in their neighborhood are not effective or of high quality,” said Ellen Goldring , Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Education and Leadership and vice dean.

To appeal to middle-income families, states have gradually raised the income caps to receive vouchers, according to Claire Smrekar , associate professor of public policy and education. She says this shift has given way to current political arguments for school choice on the basis that the freedom to choose is a basic right in a democracy.

“The language has shifted from ‘vouchers’ to ‘education scholarship accounts,’ with public polling verifying that the latter term is more politically palatable and popular,” Smrekar said. “The names of these policies—‘Empowering Parents Act,’ ‘Family Empowerment Act,’ ‘Freedom Accounts,’—suggest an emphasis on parent liberty and a shift away from earlier free-market arguments to political arguments.

“Historically, U.S. public schools have managed tensions inherent between liberty and civility. This new phase of parent empowerment in education policy is dominated by political and social tensions, and schools are now contested terrain over curriculum, access, and public discourse,” Smrekar said.

While these new policies seek to empower parents, Peabody school choice scholars agree that the policies often lack robust information dissemination plans and transparency on school quality, leaving many parents with little information to help answer their questions or to understand a school’s level of quality when considering their options. Moreover, access to information typically depends on socio-economic status. Upper- and middle-income families benefit from resource-sharing at workplaces with highly educated colleagues and through well-connected social networks. So, when parents make schooling choices, they are not just choosing between inequitable schools; their decisions are informed by—and for lower-income families, often limited by—societal inequities.

Furthermore, a review of 15 years of school choice literature by Joanne Golann , associate professor of public policy and education, reveals little evidence exists to support prevailing school choice theories. The review is forthcoming in the American Education Research Association Handbook of Education Policy Research , Volume 2 . “Early voucher programs that were small and targeted showed some positive academic effects, but many of the arguments and theories for supporting school choice do not pan out in the research literature,” Golann said. “That’s important to keep in mind since these theories are guiding school choice policies across the country, including in Tennessee.”

Voucher access and outcomes

According to Smrekar, in early 2023 14 states and 3 cities had school voucher laws, and by mid-2023, 11 more states adopted ESA laws, with others expanding existing programs. While these programs provide families with the choice to attend private school, in many states, the purchasing power of low- to middle-income families limits their choices to schools whose tuition rates do not exceed the cost of a voucher, which is typically around $7,000 to $9,000. However, research has shown that parents are usually satisfied with schools of choice in voucher programs, but satisfaction may not reflect academic quality.

Some research shows that voucher programs, particularly when scaled up, negatively impact student academic achievement. For example, researchers at Indiana University found that as voucher programs grew in size, results in math achievement dropped significantly. A study on Louisiana’s voucher program revealed low math, reading, science, and social studies scores , attributing these effects, in part, to low-quality private schools. Another Louisiana study found negative effects on math and English language arts , with some improvement to scores in the program’s second year. In the 2022-2023 academic year, students attending private schools in Tennessee’s ESA pilot program significantly underperformed in math (-22.40 percent) and ELA (-15.20 percent) compared to their public-school peers.

Universal school voucher programs are open to all families, regardless of income, which may increase costs for taxpayers. For example, the Grand Canyon Institute estimates the net cost of Arizona’s universal ESA program in FY2024 was $332 million, more than half of the projected state budget shortfall. According to the report, “Failure to rein in these costs means critical areas of state government expenditures will be cut to balance the budget.”

“We should be looking at the outcomes in states like Arizona that have scaled up voucher programs,” said Sean Corcoran , associate professor of public policy and education. “In Arizona, we’re seeing a lot of wealthy families , who were already paying for private school, use the vouchers to offset the cost of more expensive private schools. We’re also seeing many of these schools raise their tuition to whatever they think the market can bear.

“Public resources are limited, so there’s the question of whether increased funding for private school vouchers over time will eventually erode spending on public schools,” Corcoran said. “I am concerned about the macro-level effects of policy on funding and sustaining public education, as well as the potential consequences for students served by public education.”

In addition to concerns over the quality of voucher-receiving schools and the impacts of voucher programs on public school funding, tensions arise over government funding of religious schools. As the Washington Post reported , the vast majority of vouchers, to the tune of billions in taxpayer dollars, are directed towards religious schools.

Given the evidence for these concerns, Peabody scholars note that voucher-receiving schools’ academic performance, financial stability, enrollment demographics, and school leadership warrant scrutiny from policymakers interested in education equity and prospective families interested in quality education for their children.

Felipe Barrera-Osorio, associate professor of public policy, education and economics

“When you have massive voucher programs, the issue of stratification is very clear and any gains in learning are very small,” said Felipe Barrera-Osorio , associate professor of public policy, education, and economics. “There are private schools of good quality and private schools of low quality, so the assumption of private school being an advantage is unclear, and if parents do not have the information on school quality, they are further disadvantaged.” Barrera-Osorio studies the effects of large-scale experiments with school choice in Colombia, specifically charter schools with a high degree of accountability to the government.

Smrekar also stresses that ability to attend choice schools depends on a “geography of opportunity.” Families without reliable transportation or flexibility in their schedules may not be able to drive to a school of choice. Rural families have less access since private, religiously affiliated, and independent schools are often in urban settings.

That said, many voucher laws now allow homeschooling families to participate in ESAs, which appeals to rural families who want more control over their children’s instructional materials but lack access to private schools. Homeschooling networks, which are often religiously affiliated, are growing in popularity within rural communities. They provide homeschooling families with instructional materials and a likeminded educational community.

Black families, in particular, are increasingly turning to homeschooling. Carla Wellborn , a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, who studies homeschooling among Black families, says that policymakers should consider the unique concerns of these families when crafting policy. “Many Black families turn to homeschooling to protect their children from perceived racial harm in traditional schooling environments,” Wellborn said. “Policymakers should call together a collective, diverse group of homeschooling families to share their perspectives on accountability, reporting, and what those might look like as policy.”

Considerations for students with disabilities

Students with disabilities may face unique hurdles accessing services under voucher policies. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that students with disabilities receive a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. To receive voucher funds under Tennessee’s Individualized Education Account Program—a voucher program focused on students with disabilities—parents must consent to refuse special education services under IDEA.

“There are concerns with limited parental knowledge impacting whether a parent could provide informed consent about relinquishing their right to a free, appropriate public education by using the IEA program,” said Meghan Burke , professor of special education. “This may be especially true among families who are marginalized, such as families with limited English proficiency, families who struggle to read, and families with limited internet access. Further, the IEA program handbook and similar special education resources are written at a college reading level. Given the inaccessibility of these documents, families may not be fully informed about the decision to use the IEA program.”

Burke advises that Tennessee families use Support and Training for Exceptional Parents (STEP), a parent training and information center that educates and empowers families about their special education rights.

Another version of this article was originally published on March 1, 2024.

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Guest Essay

Vance Thinks He Knows Rural America. Walz Begs to Differ.

An illustration depicting a father and two children sitting in a dusty field. In the distance is the silhouette of a man giving a speech.

By Ted Genoways

Mr. Genoways, a journalist, reported from La Vista, Neb.

As Tim Walz took the stage at the Astro Theater in the Omaha suburb of La Vista on Saturday afternoon, the crowd roared with approval. Nearly 2,500 people were packed inside the auditorium, and thousands more were watching on big screens outside. It was the first time that Mr. Walz, the Minnesota governor, had been back to the state where he was born and grew up since Kamala Harris tapped him to join the Democratic ticket. He wasted no time in contrasting his running mate’s early years with her opponent Donald Trump’s gilded upbringing.

Ms. Harris, Mr. Walz reminded the audience, worked at McDonald’s in high school. “Can you picture Donald Trump working the McFlurry machine?” he asked. Later, he used a similar line of attack on Mr. Trump’s running mate. “You think JD Vance knows one damn thing about Nebraska?” he asked. “You think he’s ever had a Runza?” (A Runza is a German-style meat and cabbage roll that, improbably, can be purchased as fast food in Nebraska.) “That guy would call it a Hot Pocket,” he said. “You know it.”

For a generation or more, most of the politicians who visited towns like La Vista were Republicans who told their audiences a familiar story: that the government was in their way, that the welfare state was leeching their sweat and tears to service the lazy poor, that rugged individualism still reigned supreme. It’s the same story that Mr. Vance and his fellow Republicans are telling today. Mr. Walz is making a bold play to claw back the narrative by telling a different story — one that harks back to the prairie populists of the 20th century.

But there are limits to how much having a candidate like Mr. Walz on the ticket can achieve. Some parts of the country may be lost to Democrats for the foreseeable future, no matter how compelling a story the vice-presidential candidate has to tell. The rural Nebraska counties where Mr. Walz grew up and which comprise part of the Third Congressional District, went 80 percent to 90 percent for Mr. Trump in the last two elections. And the state as a whole has voted for just two Democratic presidential candidates in the last century — Franklin Roosevelt at the height of the Dust Bowl and Lyndon Johnson after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Still, Democrats have an opportunity to win back at least some of these voters — but only if they talk about what Republican policies have done to rural people, many of whom have been forced to leave their rural hometowns to find education and work in urban centers like Omaha.

Mr. Walz knows from bruising experience just how much Republican politicians have failed rural America by draining funding from public institutions critical to the survival of small towns and farms: schools, rural hospitals and programs for rural development and agriculture. Nebraska’s Republican governor, Jim Pillen, recently pushed a tax cut plan that would have principally been paid for by eliminating operating funds for public schools and by taxing farm and manufacturing equipment; if it had passed, Mr. Pillen himself would have received a break on his property taxes of nearly $1 million a year . The question now is whether Mr. Walz and Ms. Harris can convince voters who distrust and even despise the Democratic Party that they have a better vision to restore rural America. The fact that Mr. Walz knows a Runza from a Hot Pocket is a start.

Nebraska, where members of my family have lived since 1856, long liked to boast that it was the political (as well as geographical) middle of the country. We have America’s only nonpartisan legislature. Between 1959 and the inauguration of Barack Obama as president 50 years later, we had six Republican and five Democratic governors. In that time, we sent four Democrats and four Republicans to the Senate. Our congressional representatives were almost always Republican, but the Second District, which includes most of Omaha, went for a Democrat, Brad Ashford as recently as 2014 — and his Republican successor, Don Bacon, has never carried more than 51 percent of the vote, even after the Legislature gerrymandered the district in 2010 and again in 2020 to favor G.O.P. candidates.

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20 Public Schools Pros And Cons

Public School Pros and Cons – Summary Table

Advantages of Public Schools

2. Public Schools are Accessible

3. Transportation is Often Provided

4. Teachers are Certified

5. Public Schools Offer a Range of Supports

6. Public Schools are Diverse

7. Public Schools are Heavily Regulated

8. Public Schools Won’t Permanently Close Down

9. Public Schools Often Perform Very Well

10. Public Schools are Consistent and Uniform

Get a Pdf of this article for class

Disadvantages Of Public Schools

2. Public Schools have Bigger Class Sizes

3. Public Schools have Fewer Curriculum Options

4. Public Schools are Less Specialized

5. Public Schools have Fewer Extracurricular Activities

6. Public Schools have Less Parental Involvement

7. Public Schools have Frequent Testing

8. Bullying is Supposedly more Prevalent in Public Schools

9. Public Schools can be Overcrowded

10. Issues with Public School Infrastructure

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Public School vs. Private School Education Essay

Introduction

Quality of education

Exposure to violence

Social development

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