IAP Political Forum

Are you a high school student? What school would you prefer?

completely depends on what the public school and private options are IMHO

I agree.

I've seen a good deal of options regarding k-12 education. I attended two different private schools when I was young, was home-schooled by my mother for three years, and then attended a public middle school and high school.

The pre-k to 3 was private. Both Christian schools. Not prestigious by any standard, but a good solid early education. 4-6 was home-school. It work out well for me. I would recommend it to anyone who's mother happens to be a very bright mathematician. 7-12 was public. I recalled the children on the Christian school playground's comments of "there's fights at the public school across the street?" the evening that I caught my first ass-whipping in 7th grade. If anything, I think some exposure to hostility is a good thing in education (by no means am I saying the school should tolerate it though). My experience in public education was very good. I lived in the county that all the teachers wanted to teach in, and my father and stepmother both taught at my middle school. They were both good friends with the principal (he transfered to my high school after my 10th grade and by all measures was a top notch educator and manager), and the vast majority of the teachers who taught me.

I take great pride in the fact that I have been formally educated by both of my birth parents, and a step-parent, with the bulk of the rest of my teachers being close friends of my parents. The moral of the story here is parent involvement. What matters is not the form that the education takes, but that someone that cares deeply about the child is involved in the process.

In some cases I think voucher programs would be a very good idea, sometimes the answer is for the public school to get more funding. Those elements are a footnote though. Without the parents, there isn't a whole lot anyone can do. The parents themselves don't need to be "Educators", the key is that they instill in the child a very concrete opinion that learning should be a primary goal in life, and lay what foundation they can.

Good luck trying to translate that one into policy.