Washington, D.C. – All over America, as millions of children head happily off to school, many for the first time, new data has emerged showing the nation edging closer and closer to a full-blown crisis of confidence in public education.
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Data released Monday by Rasmussen Reports found more than a third of Americans – 35 percent – rate the nation’s public schools as “poor.” Less than one in ten of the 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed – 8 percent – were willing to give them a grade of “excellent.”
The findings are consistent, the polling firm said, with data going back as far as 2012, with those giving the quality of the public schools a “poor” rating ranging from 26 percent to 36 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage who believe the schools are functioning well, even when “excellent” is combined with “good” has never been above 30 percent., the pollster said.
Despite those dismal numbers, the survey included news that may explain why the nation’s parents are not uniformly up in arms, demanding improvements in the quality of education their children are receiving. When asked about their local school, the polling firm reported that 47 percent of those surveyed rated the schools serving their communities as either excellent (18 percent) or good (29 percent). Just 19 percent of respondents said “poor.”
As is the case with so many other surveys on diverse issues from congressional job performance to local quality of life, proximity seems to make a difference. For many years, polls have consistently shown that voters have a generally dim view of Congress as an institution but generally approve of the job their representatives are doing. Likewise with issues like healthcare. Surveys exist showing many Americans to be dissatisfied with the healthcare system, thus providing the political impetus for reforms like Obamacare but, to paraphrase the former president who pushed the legislation creating it through Congress, they like their doctor and their health plan and want to keep them.
This may be why the school reform movement is largely confined to America’s inner cities, where the schools are the worst, putting the students who attend them at the greatest risk of missing out on their share of the American Dream. A situation like that should have people marching in the streets, demanding changes that will give their kids a chance. Instead, as it is with the multiple murders that are part of daily life in places like Chicago, much of the community seems complacent.
This is, perhaps, because the political and school establishments are so deeply intertwined. The union bosses provide money and campaign support and endorsements to local elected officials, helping keep them in office. And in exchange, the local officials deliver higher salaries and better benefits when the time comes. The teachers and administrators may benefit but the children lose. And they will continue to do so until the voters insist on change by changing their voting habits.
Until they do, America’s schoolchildren will get more of the same. In a recent appearance on one of the network Sunday shows, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona responded to questions about schools going to four-day weeks with the suggestion that unspent COVID relief funds doled out by Washington during the pandemic be used to hire more teachers.
“This is a year full of promise and opportunities for students who have, for the last two years, put up with too much,” Mr. Cardona said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And thanks to the American Rescue Plan, the dollars are there to make sure that we can open up our schools with sufficient educators. Our students need more, not less.”
He’s right, up to a point. They did “put up with too much” during the pandemic when the politicians ignored the science and closed the schools, largely at the urging of the union bosses. What they need more of is not money to pay teachers but options regarding where they go to school. The solution is not complicated. If private, parochial and charter schools are doing a better job educating children, and there are plenty of studies showing they are, then the elected officials who control education policy and funding ought to be seeking out ways to make it possible for more children to attend them.
There are places where meaningful change is happening. In Arizona, outgoing GOP Gov. Doug Ducey led a successful push to change education policy after the pandemic ended that will put greater numbers of potentially at-risk students on the pathway to progress.
Before COVID, many Arizona families were unable to qualify for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, a program a state-run website describes as expanding educational opportunities for eligible students outside of the public school system by providing public funding that can be used for a wide variety of educational expenses.
In his most recent State of the State address, Ducey announced his intention to expand the program so more parents could participate. Now, thanks to his efforts, every Arizona family is eligible to use an ESA if they ever want to leave the public school system for any reason.
“On average, about $6,500 in tax dollars per student can be put into private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, online schooling, and other educational expenses such as transportation to other schools. Students who have a current IEP/MET/504 are eligible to receive additional funding,” a local Arizona CBS affiliate reported.
This plan to allow more families to have more choices when deciding where their children will go to school, which goes into effect at the end of September, has been well-received. “There’s a lot of school choice already in Arizona. 80-85 percent of students, depending on how you’re looking at it, decide to go to their neighborhood school,” Aaron Marquez, a board member for Phoenix Union High School District told Arizona’s Family in July. “It’s really important that you have high-quality options that benefit everybody in Arizona and really invest in our public schools in the state of Arizona.”
This is a change that’s real and meaningful and addresses the concerns of the 19 percent of Americans who rated their local schools “poor.” Other states should adopt similar programs as soon as possible. The expanded use of ESAs will upset the educational apple cart for sure, but it will be to the benefit of the children out there who want to learn. We owe them the chance to do so.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.