"We Must Stay Engaged"

"If we want good schools we have to stay engaged."


Sean said this in the post below reminding me that it is important for the community to stay engaged in the local public schools for them to be successful. Based on this study by Lubienski, Lubienski and Crane (2008), local public schools offer the best education because they have more certified teachers and reform-based mathematics programs that require students to think critically about math. They also stress the effect of small class size to achievement for students of the minority. It makes me cringe to think that people's response to the debt crisis in public schools is to increase class size!


In the next few weeks I will be posting some great examples of public schools and their communities working together to create sustainable education for all who attend there. Principals, teachers, parents and students have been in an uproar about the recent school closings, budget cuts, and teacher shortages, among other things. I am so impressed with everyone who fights for their local school.


On another note: Read Sean's warning in his email with the link about the "boondoggled" tax-payer scholarship in Florida called the "McKay Scholarship" - designed for students with learning disabilities to receive support while in private schools. I have posted that private schools do not legally have to support these students and most counsel the family out to public school. But this Florida politician thought it was unfair that his child would have to receive services outside the private school he was paying so much for. I really believe his heart was in the right place! Here we are again with a situation where someone was trying to do some good, but it turned out a huge mess. It is most likely his daughter and all the other students receiving funds from this voucher program would have benefited more in a public school setting where Special Education teachers must be certified to teach these students with research-based strategies. Oh, and they are not allowed to use corporeal punishment unlike these voucher supported teachers.