As the world continues to face difficulties with the coronavirus, schools in America are still unsettled with how to educate children while keeping them and staff members safe.
Many parents and guardians are having to step back into their first role as teachers, but there is a great concern of how education will look for traditional public schools. If there wasn’t so much opposition against school choice, traditional public schools would have innovative resources to continue learning outside of traditional classrooms.
Decreasing numbers in public schools will continue until we embrace school choice.
School choice is a much needed option now more than ever. There are a lot of public schools outside of large cities that don’t have the same resources and aren’t as prepared as inner city districts with technology. However, even large city school districts don’t have parents who can access all the resources.
The major difference between traditional public schools and non-traditional public schools is that non-traditional schools have flexibility in how they handle academics and operations.
Right now, public schools need flexibility in how they are presenting academics to our youth at home. Atlanta Public Schools, Dekalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett Counties are the examples all traditional public schools strive to model themselves after.
School choice is the right choice for any parent who needs a different educational option that can provide improved outcome for their child(ren).
I have always said that parents should have the right to choose which learning environment works best for their child(ren), especially when the student(s) are the ones struggling in school.
Teachers and students in traditional public schools are suffering because of the lack of flexibility to operate differently.
A cookie cutter design that most public school systems offer is becoming outdated and grossly ineffective due to stifling the creativity and innovation of teachers to present lessons in ways that reach every child.
Many parents seek school choice for program offerings, student activities, and flexibility of how models of learning are presented.
The Coronavirus has created a space needed for school choice naysayers to truly see the positive impact non-traditional schools of choice are providing American families. Learning can take place in innovative ways and still bring people together.
We still have the time to rethink education collectively. True reform involves building while dismantling a broken educational system in order to improve traditional public schools.
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.