To the Editor,
Over the last year I have heard a lot of making America great again, but have not heard any ideas about making our K-12 education great. I have heard a lot of talk about school choice and free market systems to fix our schools. In answer to that, I quote John Oliver by saying, “The problem with letting the free market decide when it comes to kids is that kids change faster than the market. And by the time it’s obvious the school is failing, futures may have been ruined.” I have always felt we underserved our children in this country when it comes to education. If our kids have quality education, it is good for everyone, it effects all our futures. Why aren’t we looking to models for education that have been proven to work in other countries? Like explained in the NPR article ”What The U.S. Can Learn From Finland.” They have a proven K-12 education system that is ranked #1 in the world. I would caution every parent who considers moving their child to a charter school, you could be doing a lot more harm then you realize. Like when the charter school fails and shuts down, how will you deal with the unexpected lack of childcare/supervision for younger kids? What school will you send them to next ? The funding for your child already went to the failed school. Every parent, should at the very least, watch the episode of the show “Last Week Tonight” about charter schools (HBO or Youtube) before jumping on the school choice bandwagon.
Jen Petrillo
Lanesboro, MN
Letter about Making American schools great…
