insomnomaniac

Another "right to choose" the left ignores

Public schools are FAILING our kids--minority kids worst of all. And what happens when parents (who give a shit) are given a choice as to whether to support these failing schools or to take their "business" elsewhere?

You got it! They go elsewhere, as they should and as they damn-well have a right to in my opinion. The "state" does not have some intrinsic "right" to be the sole educator of our children. The sooner we get that through our collective skulls, the better of our kids--and our entire society--will be.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Something momentous is happening here in the home of prairie populism: black flight. African-American families from the poorest neighborhoods are rapidly abandoning the district public schools, going to charter schools, and taking advantage of open enrollment at suburban public schools. Today, just around half of students who live in the city attend its district public schools.

As a result, Minneapolis schools are losing both raw numbers of students and "market share." In 1999-2000, district enrollment was about 48,000; this year, it's about 38,600. Enrollment projections predict only 33,400 in 2008. A decline in the number of families moving into the district accounts for part of the loss, as does the relocation of some minority families to inner-ring suburbs. Nevertheless, enrollments are relatively stable in the leafy, well-to-do enclave of southwest Minneapolis and the city's white ethnic northeast. But in 2003-04, black enrollment was down 7.8%, or 1,565 students. In 2004-05, black enrollment dropped another 6%.

Black parents have good reasons to look elsewhere. Last year, only 28% of black eighth-graders in the Minneapolis public schools passed the state's basic skills math test; 47% passed the reading test. The black graduation rate hovers around 50%, and the district's racial achievement gap remains distressingly wide. Louis King, a black leader who served on the Minneapolis School Board from 1996 to 2000, puts it bluntly: "Today, I can't recommend in good conscience that an African-American family send their children to the Minneapolis public schools. The facts are irrefutable: These schools are not preparing our children to compete in the world." Mr. King's advice? "The best way to get attention is not to protest, but to shop somewhere else."

With all the talk of "choice" being so vital to our essential freedoms, where's the left/liberal Democrats on education? Firmly in the "we know what's best for you" camp. How ironic that they freak out and accuse the right of wanting to deny women the "Right to Choose" simply because we want to pass legislation prohibiting them from "choosing" to kill a fetus in the third trimester, but when it comes to allowing parents to "choose" where and how their kids should be educated? No way. How dare parents think they know what's best for their kids once they are BORN!

It would do the anti-voucher, anti-school-choice crowd well to consider the following:

Minneapolis families seeking to escape troubled schools are fortunate to have the options they do. That's not the case in many other states, where artificial barriers -- from enrollment caps to severe underfunding -- have stymied the growth of charter schools.

The city's experience should lead such states to reconsider the benefits of expansive school choice. Conventional wisdom holds that middle-class parents take an interest in their children's education, while low-income and minority parents lack the drive and savvy necessary. The black exodus here demonstrates that, when the walls are torn down, poor, black parents will do what it takes to find the best schools for their kids.

Do you think ANYONE on the left EVER considers the hypocrisy of their various positions on when and how we ought to be free to "choose?"

I'm guessing NO. NOT. EVER.

Posted by insomnomaniac at March 2, 2006 7:07 PM | TrackBack