Needed: more letters to the editor written by us all.
Read the letter to the editor on news-journalonline.com.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion/...l-gimmicks.html
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Avoid educational gimmicks
By SARAH KREUZ, Palm Coast
January 16, 2011
The fact that Rick Scott wants to establish a universal school-voucher system and develop more charter schools sounds appealing to most people who quite frankly are vastly ignorant regarding most issues regarding education in the United States.
These are ideas that reflect a largely capitalistic, corporate, "Wall Street" attitude that is surely not ideal for the education of the Florida's youth. Studies conducted by Columbia University found that the performance of charter schools was no different than the performance of public schools on standardized achievement tests in 49 out of 50 states. Charter schools actually performed 4-5 percent lower than public schools when it came to the achievement of minorities and students of low socioeconomic status. The Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University labeled charter schools as "a failed reform."
Charter schools were, originally, established in our country as institutions for creative, innovative teaching practices and curricula and to provide other options for students in districts where the public schools were failing them. However, charter schools have failed to close the achievement gap that they were created to close in the first place.
School vouchers were created for the same purpose. Yet, school vouchers are not a solution to failing public schools. They are a way to silence already largely voiceless minorities and citizens of low socioeconomic status. The business community and corporations love the idea of school vouchers, because these institutions are looking to make money off of the education of our nation's youth.
We cannot treat the education of children with the same capitalistic mindset that has ruined our country's economy. If we stand by and let Scott and many other politicians, including our president, go on with these corporate-minded school reforms we will suffer grave and tragic consequences.
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Read the letter to the editor on news-journalonline.com.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion/...l-gimmicks.html