By Stephen Smith.
Politicians do it, educators do it, the 1% do it, executives do it and even your favorite Hollywood Stars do it.
If the people of California School Choice are successful in their next campaign, you will be able to do it too. What is it that they do? They send their children to the finest K-12 schools available. Their children receive all the advantages a fine education can provide. Your children can do it too.
You can help bring School Choice to California. Just click one of the links---
Sign the Petition or Volunteer
With your help and support, your children will not be prevented from attending the same fine schools that the elite do because you live in the wrong zip code. It will not matter if you are working for minimum wage or living paycheck to pay check. Issues of race, class and gender for admission become irrelevant. It will not matter if that great school you want your child to attend is public, private or parochial. If your student is prepared and willing to do the work, you insure they attend and there is a seat available, you will be able to afford it. Never has access to a fine education been this fair or this accessible. Schools will be competing to do their very best to earn your trust and to provide your child the finest education possible.
You might be thinking, hold on a minute. My child is going to a great school and I am very happy with the education they are getting. Congratulations, you are fortunate indeed and there is no need for you to make any changes. Unfortunately, many in our public schools’ systems are not faring as well. In many of our schools the graduation rates are poor and if they do graduate, they need much remedial work before they will be prepared to embark on a college education. Poor reading and writing skills are common for many new college enrollees. The California Department of Education has recently reported that 110 of LAUSD schools need comprehensive improvement and outside help. Shockingly 56 are in the bottom 5%. Call it the worst of the worst. The State or the LAUSD have not offered solutions or advice on what actions the parents should take. Overwhelmingly these schools are in minority and impoverished neighborhoods. Historically, some of these under- performing schools have been referred to as “failure factories”. Interestingly, students in the same neighborhoods who have been fortunate enough to attend a parochial or charter school have very high graduation rates and college admission levels. Under our current system, where money for education follows the zip code, the students in these failing schools are left without options and a dim future. Some parents may be concerned about their child’s safety or may prefer an education that include teaching moral values. Without wealth or if they are low income they are trapped. Many of our schools are failing in achieving the proper role of education. Their students are not graduating or being prepared to face an ever more complex world. The problem is not new.
In his “Report for University of Virginia, 1818, Thomas Jefferson explained the proper role for public education.
"The objects of... primary education [which] determine its character and limits [are]: To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; to enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing; to improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; to understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; to know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains, to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgment; and in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.”
The solution is to come up with a system where all children can have the same options and opportunities as those who are more blessed. The goal is to achieve that standard of education for your children which Thomas Jefferson so eloquently laid out for us. That solution is what California School Choice is seeking to achieve.
One solution begins with a very simple idea. Tax money being allocated for education follows the student and does not stay in the zip code. It supports the idea that IT IS YOUR MONEY to spend on YOUR CHILD’S EDUCATION and YOUR CHOICE how and where it spent. If you love your local public school, great spend it there. If you like the challenges and parental involvement of a Charter School, spend it there. If you wish your child’s education to include moral and spiritual development, spend it on a religious sponsored school. If you wish to give the challenge of a classical education as advocated by Thomas Jefferson to your children, you may do that too. This will force all schools both public and private to improve and compete for your educational dollar. The only losers will be the “failure factories” and educators who care more about themselves than your child's future.
A CALL TO ACTION
1. Help us to create awareness about the reasons for school choice by hosting special events, social media and direct contact with your friends and organizations.
2. Promote the idea that parents should be able to send their children to the school that best fits their child's needs and talents and are more consistent with their parents values.
3. Look and work for a solutions that treats all California K-12 students equally.
This is your opportunity to affect dramatic positive change that will make education in the Golden State truly golden.
Now is the time to show that you care about the future of California and our Children future by signing our petition of support for School Choice in California.
Please consider signing to be kept UpToDate on progress and what you can do to make it happen. This idea has long been a dream of mine and I hope that the more you learn and think, it will be a dream of yours as well.
