A right to a free, effective education
Every tax payer has the right to a free, effective elementary school education.
I don’t think anybody disagrees with that.
When I went to discuss the excessive homework assignments and the detrimental effects they are having on my first grader with the Principal, one of the things I was told is: That’s why some people homeschool and other people go to private school. Wait. What?
This is saying that it is my burden when the public schools are not fulfilling their charter to provide an effective education for my child to either take on all of the expense and time and energy resources of educating him myself at home or take on the financial burden of paying for a private school. I’ll be honest. I am absolutely capable of effectively homeschooling. I am an education consultant who creates and teaches original curricula for a living. I also don’t have a minimum of $12,000 per year to spend on private education that is supposed to be free. That is unacceptable.
I have a right to have the public school system perform effectively. So do you.
Another suggestion was to get a homework accommodation which is apparently available to any student whose parent believes their child needs one. I could simply go to the teacher and get relief for my child, but that leaves a whole host of students whose parents aren’t as outspoken as I am suffering under destructive homework policy. That is unacceptable.
There are people who will never call the Principal of their child’s school for a lot of reasons.
Among them are:
a feeling that it is wrong to question authority
a lack of confidence speaking English
a lack of time outside of working
and more.
Yet, their children also have a right to effective, free education up to at least the end of high school.
That’s why we need to stand up together and demand that our schools stop to listen and take productive action instead of telling us it’s our way or the highway.
We are better than this.
