Mississippi, What Do You Think You Are Doing?
by Amanda Koonlaba
Originally posted at: http://www.msedblog.net/2016/06/29/koonlaba-mississippi-what-do-you-think-you-are-doing/
I’ve just read the most depressing article this morning from back in the spring about Detroit’s schools. It tells about how much some families struggle to get their children to school in a place where school choice policy has run rampant for many years. I can’t imagine having to do any of the things described in the article to get my children to school. I completely count on the good public schools where I live to provide an education for them.
I’ve just read the most depressing article this morning from back in the spring about Detroit’s schools. It tells about how much some families struggle to get their children to school in a place where school choice policy has run rampant for many years. I can’t imagine having to do any of the things described in the article to get my children to school. I completely count on the good public schools where I live to provide an education for them.
I acknowledge that we are privileged to live where we live, which brings me to the first major point I want to make with this post: I want ALL students, not just my own, to have access to quality schools.
Forcing schools to compete, students to compete, parents to compete will not provide our society with what it needs to sustain itself. Education should be a basic, civil right. The principles of the free market do not work for education. I’ve said and written all of these things what feels like a billion times. However, I keep saying all of this because we should never forget that the product of an educational system is human beings…not cars, not technology, not entertainment.
I fear that I am becoming a minority in this country and state as I refuse to only look out for my own best interests in this matter.
I still believe in the common good. I believe in ethical decision-making. I believe this country and this state are not mine, not yours. America and Mississippi are ours.
I once had a Twitter conversation with Dmitri Mehlhorn, one of the co-founders of StudentsFirst and the Hope Street Group, major pro-school choice organizations at the national level. He Badass Teachers Association: Mississippi, What Do You Think You Are Doing? by Amanda Koonlaba:
