The far right talks about public schools as if everyone of them is a miserable failure. This stems from their religious like devotion to all things private sector, and complete aversion to anything public. The problem is its not true at all. Many public school systems can and do excel. For example, the public school district our kids are in had:
37 National Merit Semi-finalists in 2008
Nearly $35 million in scholarship offers in 2007
133 students named Advanced Placement Scholars for receiving
a score of 3 or above on an Advanced Placement test in 2006
One student earned a perfect score on the ACT and SAT in 2007
Gold medal rating from Expansion Management Magazine putting
district in top four percent of school districts in the nation.
The public school district next door to ours had:
- ACT composite average score: 24.1 (2007)
SAT composite average score: 1734 (2007) - The district is among the top two percent of public school districts nationwide, according to Expansion Management magazine.
- Nearly every Blue Valley student scored at proficient or above in reading and math on the Kansas State Assessments. On the Kansas Math Assessment, nearly 94 percent of Blue Valley students met standards or better, and nearly 95 percent met standards or better on the Kansas Reading Assessment.
- All four high schools were named to Newsweek’s “1,300 Top U.S. Schools” list.
- 29 students were named National Merit scholarship finalists (2007).
- The prestigious Blue Ribbon distinction from the U.S. Department of Education has been awarded 14 times to district schools for their outstanding educational programs.
- Blue Valley teachers have earned the Kansas Master Teacher Award 13 times.
- 181 students were named Kansas Designated Scholars.
- 2007 graduates were offered more than $27.8 million in grants, scholarships and awards.
- Blue Valley’s graduation rate is 98 percent.
- Approximately 92 percent of Blue Valley graduates pursue a post-secondary education.
Private schools would kill for numbers like that and unlike public schools they get to pick and choose their students. The secret to those two districts success is simple: Parents that are highly involved in their kids education and well funded schools. Thats it, and vouchers nor any of the right wing schemes are a substitute for either of those. The problem in failing schools is almost universally the parents fault. Vouchers don't fix worthless parents. Thats a problem that has to be tackled at the society level. The poor performing districts their kids go to are a symptom of the problem, not the cause.