SCHOOL: They shouldn't compete

I would like to offer a different point of view concerning the July 2nd editorial “Schools: Compete for Customers.”

I fundamentally disagree with the ideology that public education should be about competition and consumer choice. Public education is the covenant that our nation has made with our children centuries ago. Public education is a civic responsibility. Real public schools welcome all children, not just those from more fortunate families. Seeing scarce education dollars being spent on newspaper advertisements cheapens that promise. It is past time for the United States, and more specifically the Idaho Legislature, to stop treating our children as tax liabilities and start investing in our future.

I use the term ideology because the writer of this editorial dismisses flaws in the “school choice” scheme as though it is mere collateral damage. “Excessive expulsions” in New Orleans are “not the point” according to the writer. In the competitive model perhaps they are just children with behavior and learning issues that are screwing up the bottom line. Real public schools never give up on kids. The writer claims the CDA Charter Academy is a blueprint for success. The fall enrollment in 2008 at the Academy was 131 6th graders. This spring only 65 of those students made it to graduation at Charter. I don’t want to paint all charter schools with the same brush but that graduation ratio would never be acceptable in a real public school.

Models for public education success abound in other countries, Finland for example. Those systems are either dismissed or ignored by American lawmakers. Why? My guess is it’s because they require a consistent and substantial investment in teachers and kids. Successful systems that educate all children don’t fit into the competitive or corporate scheme. The “stack’em deep, teach’em cheap” and merit pay ideology will never attract and retain the teachers necessary for our country to be education leaders.

MARTY MEYER

Coeur d’Alene