Education is a Common Good: There Should Be No Losers | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights

Education is a Common Good: There Should Be No Losers | LFA: Join The Conversation - Public School Insights:

Education is a Common Good: There Should Be No Losers

by Tarsi Dunlop

While we live in a market-driven economy, where winning and wealth accumulation are desired outcomes, education advocates on all sides of the political aisle currently assert that public schools are failing our children, especially minorities and low-income students.  Education is a common good; it is the stepping-stone through which students can make something better of their futures. Therefore, we should not be setting up a system to create winners and losers.

Given the reality that we should be educating all children, it may surprise the uninformed observer that the market-based approach is alive and well in the education field – driving a set of reforms that is slowly eroding our public school system and creating an even wider and more troubling achievement gap; ensuring that more affluent students have access to better schools and more resources, while low-income students receive a second-class education. Last week