I go back and forth about how and where I want my children to be educated. If you have read my past posts, you know I believe in a new way of teaching and learning which includes non-traditional models such as Waldorf and even homeschooling. So, let's propose I move into my new, beautiful dream home in East Nashville. What comes with my sticker price on the house? Another $6,000 to $32,0000 a year for K-12 learning, times 2 children, depending on where we decide to send them to school. Why? Because the public schools simply aren't cutting it! "Why not move to the 'burbs?" you ask. Well, I have many reasons for this, among them is the fact that it is just as expensive, if not more, to move to the 'burbs and it comes with a whole host of other issues in relationship to schooling and community that I don't want to deal with.
The whole point is, we aren't getting what we are paying for. Yes, I am lucky that I have choices. If we have to, we will stay in our smaller house and send our kiddos to a private school or hope we get accepted through the lottery to a "good enough" public school. Or, if we just have to have the space, we will move way down down into the "affordable" suburban area and I will grin and bear it, so they can at least go to public schools that traditionally churn out more college-goers.
But there are other folks who don't have choices. I understand that this lack of choices is often created by poor past choices. However, if we are going to end this cycle of poor choices which lead to lack of education and poverty, we have to start with the schools. Every child, regardless of their parents' lack of quality decision-making, deserves an amazing public school. Why do we even have schools if they are just there for the sake of being there? Does Wal-Mart just keep stores open because they feel badly that if they close down, people in the area won't have a place to shop? Of course not! So why do schools operate this way? I am not suggesting we operate on Wal-Mart's model, but what I am suggesting is that we stop taking our money and throwing it away to live where we don't want to, or to pay for private school if it is in fact what we do not want. Private schools are awesome, if that is what you want for your child. However, private schools should not be the only quality choice.
Your tax dollars are going toward funding public schools, and for some of you, the very public schools you are opting out of only to pay ridiculous tuition rates that you simply are struggling to afford all at the sake of your child gaining a proper education so he/she can go on to college as prepared as possible. Let's put our imagination caps for a second. What if you take that money over to the school in your neighborhood where your children are zoned ask them, "what can you do with this?" Let's imagine that your child's $16,000 tuition for kindergarten was donated to your neighborhood school for a program that helps bring in resources to the school to ensure that each kindergarten child who needs one has a mentor that will stay with that child through elementary school and perhaps even beyond. Or what if that money was put to good use for a classroom assistant or two that could help the teacher manage the classroom more efficiently. What if that $16,000 went toward helping form a parent mentoring group, bringing in local experts who could guide parents who live in poverty toward getting out of poverty and off of welfare in whatever way best suits each individual?
How does sharing this $16,000 help you and your child? It helps by ensuring that your children gain access to a free, quality, public education, giving teachers help to do what they know how to do and are trained to do: TEACH. It helps to ensure that people that live in your neighborhood are learning what they need to do to come out of poverty and develop into tax paying, productive citizens. It helps ensure that your neighborhood is safer and more beautiful than it was before.
Would this take time? Of course, but if done in the right way, it could lead to an urban revolution where public schools are thriving, children are learning, teachers are teaching, and neighborhoods are filled with people of different races and classes, working together to build each other up. Why keep throwing your tax dollars away on poor public schools and a broken welfare system, when you could donate a little time, effort, and that high dollar tuition toward bringing up the very neighborhood you live in?
So now back to reality. Of course I do not suggest that it is right for people who can afford private school to give their child's tuition away for the sake of another child who cannot afford it. The point is to ask you to reflect on how much money you are doling out just to avoid a very real problem that, if not addressed with the sense of urgency it deserves, will continue to haunt many generations to come. I am guilty of considering doing the same. Culling our resources both human and monetary, could in fact lead to greater problem solving than what is currently happening. Look at your neighborhood schools. Are they sufficient enough for your child to attend or are you going to take on a mortgage you can't afford or a second job to pay for tuition just so your child can go to a quality school? If you are going to increase your blood, sweat, and tears output for private school tuition or a house near a better school district, why not utilize that same blood, sweat, and tears, to organize your neighborhood to demand change for its public schools? Let's demand that we get better return for what we are paying for!
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