Public Educations Last Stand

Pupils, parents, principals, and politicians all want the best for the rising generation. The right to the pursuit of happiness is one of the most fundamental principles held by nearly all Americans. In our quest for satisfaction our education plays a considerable role. Our education largely determines which occupations we will be capable of attaining, the type of people we will be associating with, our income, and to a large measure our future happiness in life. In a mission to prepare students to enter the competitive workforce and give back to their community, the charter school initiative was born. Because the charter schools have been so successful, more charter schools should be initiated and more funding should be given to existing charter schools.

The Utah State Office of Education (USOE) compares charter schools to typical high schools and shows the benefits of charter schools over traditional education, “Students may choose to attend charter schools that focus on a specific style of learning and/or curriculum,” (Utah State Office Of Education). By allowing emphasis in an area of learning, educators assist in training excellent future employees and business leaders by giving an early immersion to their area of pursuit.

Unlike private schools, charter schools may not present any requirements of entrance. If the number of entering students exceeds the capacity of the school then accepted students are chosen at random from the available applicants (Utah State Office Of Education, 1).

In an analysis preparedly the Office of Educational Research and Development it was discovered that over 70 percent of charter schools do not have the capacity to accept all applicants that request admission. It was also discovered through various focus groups of parents and students that students were dissatisfied with their previous experiences at other public schools (Office of Educational Research and Development, 12 ). Such findings are not unexpected. The experience in the traditional public school system has been dilluted from an academic journey to a meer social event. Anyone who doubts this assertion can consider the following question. If their own child were to be taken out of a public high school setting and set into a home school environment what would be their first concern? Would their concern be greater for the child’s educational foundation or for their child’s social and emotional wellbeing? As California Judge Janice Rogers Brown put it, “The public school system is already so beleaguered by bureaucracy; so cowed by the demands of due process; so overwhelmed with faddish curricula that its educational purpose is almost an afterthought.”