What is School Choice, Really?
This is cross-posted from my Philly Teacher blog. I wanted to extend the conversation to this community of forward-thinking and innovative educators, so I have added it to the Co-op. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Pennsylvania’s new Governor, Tom Corbett, ran on a platform of school vouchers. He and his neighbor, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have been pushing for legislation to bring more of them to their respective states. Most of the arguments I have heard supporting school vouchers is that they support school choice.
This idea that being able to choose from a traditional public school, a public charter, a parochial school or a private independent school is true ‘choice’ is a huge falsehood.
When we talk about school choice, we should be talking about choices in instructional models. We know that not all students learn the same. We know that some students can succeed in the traditional model. We know that many do not. We also know that there are a variety of alternatives to the traditional model.