Edder Martinez, Staff Reporter
Most people can agree that the education system is in crisis in the US. What is less clear is why, and how the issue can be solved. Private schooling has been a solution some parents have decided on and several others are thinking about enrolling their children in, but is homeschooling the answer or result of a failing schooling system?
Distrust in the American public school system has grown among both students and parents; thus some parents have reacted by sending their children to private schools private schooling Is still today a luxury not all families can afford and not the solution
Ever since their rise to prominence in the mid 1900s private schools have been a way privileged families have separated, and segregated themselves from the general public. The first big boom in private school attendance would come after Brown V. Board as a way for wealthier families to move away from the now interggrated public schools.
Still today families in private schooling on average make more than their public schools counterparts, and the attendance rates of white students is much higher being 66 percent to 47 percent.
Private schools are a privilege that usually only the wealthier can afford whilst the average citizen can’t afford due to income inequality. Public schooling has suffered from underfunding due to a broken tax code and federal budget cuts. To produce a future generation of educated Americans the average citizen should not be held behind a paywall
A common argument is that Parents need more choice when it comes to the education of their children, and that the free market economy can increase competition therefore improving overall quality and making cost lower. Firstly private education is not an option every parent can make for their children; Aswell public services inherently are made to loose money
Schooling is expensive, but for the most part society collectively decides education is important enough to spend on for the greater good. Despite this in many schools, especially in densely populated urban areas, schools still don’t receive enough money, and the “competition” is yet to improve the quality of education.
Putting the public’s focus back on public education, and how the problems schools are often plagued by rather than abandoning it is important to finding solutions. Improving the way schools are funded and where their money comes from is a great first step. Moving schooling away from the 20th and into the 21st century by modernizing what and how we learn is important.
