Rejecting charter school money is right thing to do

Dec 17, 2019
Dec 17, 2019 Updated Dec 17, 2019
2

To The Daily Sun,

I must applaud the wisdom of the members of the New Hampshire Joint Fiscal Committee in rejecting $10 million in federal funding for charter schools. Charter schools drain desperately needed money away from public education.

In New York City — I’m not sure about New Hampshire — charter schools take over space in public education sites and pay no rent, even when the charters are for-profit entities. Many charters reject difficult or low-performing students in order to inflate their success rates.

I have seen no honest studies that show charters to be superior to public education in student performance. The primary reason for the existence of charter schools is to destroy teachers’ unions in much the same way American businesses cloak union-busting by using the more digestable term “outsourcing.”

Let us use federal funds to the benefit of public education and let us direct all state revenues from lottery games solely to education instead of the general fund, which can be used for increases in government salaries, etc. Education would surely blossom in all states if lottery revenue went solely to education, which is how they tricked us into approving lotteries.

Legislatures should next consider the banning of home schooling except in cases of medical disability. All children need to develop the art of interacting with their peers, teachers and society as a whole. Home schooling, in many cases, makes that nearly impossible and is used by cults and extremist sects to isolate and indoctrinate their children.

Children in many countries cannot afford to attend public school because the parents cannot afford to pay for education. Let us take full advantage of the free, required public school educational system in the United States. It’s a wonderful gift.

Ernest Solis

Franklin

(2) comments

VSmith Mar 1, 2020 12:11am

Dear Ernest,

I need to respectfully disagree with your assessment of homeschooling. I am a former public school educator (with a double BA alongside my 5-year teaching degree) who chose to stay home with my kids and educate them myself. I am neither an extremist or a cultist (in fact, we are secular homeschoolers). I'm an average mom from a middle class family who saw many things in the school system that didn't sit well with my soul.

I remember many long years ago when I was a kid, we knew "weird, cult-ish homeschoolers" and I had similar thoughts that you've expressed, but I have good news for you! The days of homeschooling being mainly the domain of religious extremists who might want to isolate their children are most definitely fading to the background! These days, there are so many exciting groups and activities for homeschooling families that the vast majority of families that I've met over the years spend a LOT of time around other kids each week.

There are SO many more resources for families these days, Ernest. Most of us who have chosen to educate our own children can take advantage of great community discounts (at places like bookstores, art studios, discovery/science centers, national parks, museums, dance studios, and even universities, trade schools and other higher education) are often given to homeschooled families.

Many of us realize that we can provide an education for our children that is far more exciting, hands-on, and catering more to the specific abilities, needs and interests of our children. Colleges and universities (including a growing list of ivy league schools) actually are RECRUITING homeschooled students because they have observed that, time and time again, homeschooled students are not only scoring higher on achievement tests than their same-age public-schooled peers, but they often have a stronger ability to think outside-the-box. They also tend to be more highly motivated to jump into higher learning as well (feel free to do your own research on what I'm saying, don't just take my word for it!).

Your opinion, which I can completely respect if you've not been exposed to the realities of modern day homeschooling, could use an infusion of current data. Please consider that there will always be "bad apples" in every barrel, but this subject is far too important to paint it with such a limited brush stroke.

In our family, we have a great balance of co-op/homeschool classes (alongside other community offerings such as one-off planetarium courses offered only to homeschoolers, access to sports (both local recreation departments as well as public schools allow homeschoolers to participate in extra-curricular and other activities) and family field trips alongside the more subdued days where we spend time at home in front of books, playing educational board games, watching documentaries, having instrument lessons, doing online courses on laptops and of course spending lots of time outside in the fresh air and with neighborhood friends.

It's a new era, Ernest, and one that I hope you can educate yourself about so that you, too, can feel excited about the possibilities for the future of children like ours.

noneya Feb 28, 2020 3:51pm

What a woefully ignorant commentary regarding a topic of which you clearly know nothing, Mr. Solis. My children are homeschooled so that they can advance through their education at a far more satisfactory pace than a teacher with 30 students could ever hope to achieve, and so that we can foster their unique talents, skills, and abilities in a manner far more prudent than any government agency could ever dream. We are not part of a cult. We don’t even spank our children. Homeschooling is in fact, one of many ways we *protect* them from abuse. (Ever hear of Mary Kay Letourneau, Gary Gregor, Janet Kaye Barnes, and so many others?) They’ve never been sick a day in their lives, and they’re far more social and well-adjusted than the majority of publicly educated children. Homeschooled children have become doctors, lawyers, CEOs and even President of this wonderful nation — a nation where we have the freedom to educate our children the way we see fit. Please sit down and mind your own children, Sir.