Indiana

Making the Right Choice

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

With a good chunk of school starting this week, I figured it would be the perfect time to entertain the thought of the subject of school choice.  I bring this up not only because I’m a big fan of choice and competition, but also the fact is that there are five new charter schools slated to open up in Indianapolis and there’s a waiting list of more than 1700 students trying to get a spot.   That should tell you something.

I’ve never fully understood the opposition to school choice.  What is so wrong about figuring out how much it cost to educate a child in Indiana and then letting the parent (or taxpayer) designate that money to the school of their choice.  If the parent does nothing I can live with the dollar automatically defaulting the district the parent lives in, but other than that, let the free market go at it.   And I will even add that when a parent elects to send his or her child to a school, they are stuck there for the entire year, absent some serious health or safety issue.  What harm could choice possibly do, except get rid of some bad schools that should have never existed in the first place?

My friends who teach in traditional public schools will tell me the choice system is inherently flawed because traditional schools are competing on a different playing field than charter and private schools.  That statement is not entirely true because traditional public schools can apply for waivers from numerous state rules and regulations but many choose not to do so.   The dirty little secret is if they do apply for the waiver and get it  they won’t have the state to blame when things go wrong.   In addition, charter schools don’t get money for transportation like traditional schools do.  So they are literally doing more with less.

Now I believe this is the point where the anti-choice crowd comes out of the woodwork and says charter schools don’t, as a whole, get better results than traditional schools.  I remind my friends that when charter and private schools don’t perform they shut down.  When traditional schools don’t perform, they get more money. Which is worse?

We’re always talking about more accountability in schools.  What better way to hold people accountable than let the consumer vote with his or her dollar about where they want their children to be educated.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on August 08, 2010 (boomark / email).