From Our Readers
"...If schools could cut out the bureaucracy and really try and help each child, if they cared about learning, and if they did not become complacent with current standards, then charter schools would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, our country is sorely lacking in mathematics and the sciences. Most children have to wait until graduate studies to actually learn...I bet that charter schools will do more to forward improvements in public schooling than talking about it or complaining about having to give each child his due.
My opinion is based on my own experiences in public school and later on in undergraduate and graduate studies. I have three children, one of which is already dealing with the bureaucracy of the public school system because he does not fit the mold and the school is unwilling and unable to address his needs...Unfortunately public schools have thwarted parent's attempts to do something about it. I will continue to try and work with the public school system, but I will do whatever I can to assure my child does not experience the same difficulties that I did in my public school experience. Therefore I support charter school efforts by concerned parents."
—James Thompson
"...Public schools ARE different from the U.S. Army. Both private armies and private schools have already been tried. Private armies do not work, but private schools do.
I have close friends who are educators. And the problem is that public schools are too focused on perpetuating the bureaucracy and in promoting the latest social fad, and not on what really works in educating kids for work in the real world. My private school days were focused on challenging my brain and finding how to stretch my abilities. Watching my kids go through public schooling, I found a few teachers who held to that same standard of excellence. However, far too many were more concerned with dealing with the public school politics and provided mediocre education. Even my then 12-year-old son recognized this and asked us to transfer him to a different school where he could learn.
Upper income citizens can afford to send their kids to private school like I was (my dad was in upper management at Westinghouse). However, most of us do not have the luxury to be able to afford this option.
So tell me this. If conservative Republicans most likely CAN afford to send their kids to private school, and most lower income families in the big urban areas are Democrats who can NOT afford a private school education, why is it that REPUBLICANS are calling for better access to quality private schools while Democrats are trying to block this benefit for 'the common man'?"
—Mark Ostroff
