New Jersey
I am a grandparent of three; our oldest grandchild will attend Kindergarten this September. My wife was a public-school teacher for over 40 years, we have one daughter who is a school teacher and one who works with students at the state university. My wife’s sister and brother-in-law were public high school teachers. As early as my freshman year in college, as soon as I was able to critically assess and question the public school system, I found the system continues to fail children in underserved communities. I currently volunteer with the admissions office of my alma mater to interview prospective candidates for offers of acceptance to the school. My experience with various public and private schools affirms my conclusion that many public schools, particularly in urban areas, continue to retrograde and diminish the academic curricula, thereby inadequately preparing students to be competitive as they strive toward a positive outcome for their future. The school administrators’ and Board of Education’s attitude borders on indifference and an acceptance of low expectations for their students; with much of their story being revealed on their websites and by what they don’t communicate to those they are there to serve. I believe the only way public schools will improve is for them to have to compete with other educational institutions for their funding, based on transparent and verifiable measured performance. I believe all taxpayers, whether they have students in public schools or not, are stakeholders in the education of our community’s children and should have an input on how our tax dollars are used for education. I believe it is time to change the distribution of financing education to follow the children, wherever they chose to attend primary and secondary education rather than to go automatically to public schools. Parents should make informed decisions on how their children are to be educated. I would like to see a movement to change state laws to allow for a new distribution of education dollars. In our state, this will probably require a change in our state constitution, as the courts, vested in the system, have continuously ruled in favor of the status quo.