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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > July > 27 > Entry
What about suburban choice?
In an recent editorial, the DDN gave its strongest endorsement yet to the concept of school choice, arguing families are “entitled� to vouchers and other options when schools perform consistently poorly.
The editorial calls for community urgency to address low performing schools. In Ohio, low performance is judged almost entirely on standardized test scores, and not surprisingly most of the lowest performing schools are in the low income city.
Persistent poor test performance is certainly a signal that a school is having problems serving its kids, and the DDN editorial board makes it clear that it believes those families should have the option to try other schools to see if different choices can serve their childrens’ needs better.
Here’s something I’ve been thinking about. There are many families in suburban and rural school districts that feel their public schools do not meet their needs for a variety of reasons. I can even think of a local example. Stivers School for the Arts, a Dayton inner city high school, has a great reputation. Every year, parents from the suburbs ask if they can pay tuition to send their arts-oriented kids to Stivers, believing the school will better serve their needs.
The schools suburban kids attend may be scoring fine on tests, but still not be serving the needs of a particular student. This is not the same problem the poor parents of the inner city have — at least these children still can attend a school judged “good� by test scores.
But if options are good for underserved kids in the city, why shouldn’t the state be giving these “underservedâ€? suburban kids options, too? If choice is good for city kids, shouldn’t it also be good for kids in suburban or rural areas?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice
Comments
By Dave
August 8, 2005 6:13 PM | Link to this
As a parent of a kindergartner soon to be a 1st grader. My local suburban district only provided 1/2 kindergarten. My child was ready for full day. I looked into a local Charter School and found a full day program, spanish, chess club, and computers in the classroom. My child received a wonderful education from this school. My only qualms were that she was picked up in a sub compact car. The district that I reside in is a district that is rated as Excellent. She will return to the district for next year due to the transportation issue that incidently the district was responsible for and to allow her to attend school with her friends in our community. If I were stuck without acceptable choices I would be thrilled to have this type of choice. Let the districts complete and quit telling me I don’t know whats best for my child.