Vouchers, School Choice and the Publics Interest Essay -- Persuasive

School Choice and the Publics refer   Recent trends toward privatizing schools and relieving them of state requirements wrongly imply that schools should mirror the desires of p bents and ignore the publics busy in having citizens educated for democracy.   Rob Reich, who recently earned his doctorate in philosophy of schooling at Stanford, is writing a book on school vouchers, charter schools and home schooling. Reich stated his view that the nation is slithering too far into deregulated schooling. The guiding idea behind privatization, whether it is vouchers, charter schools or home schooling, is that parents should be the sole decision-making agents about the kind of education their children receive. scarce this eviscerates the public or civic purposes of schooling.   Public schooling itself is not the goal, he said, and public schools dont necessarily do better than private schools in educating children to go steady the states interests, which he defined as pre paring children for both workforce and democratic participation. Those who linked in the discussion pushed Reich to specify the content of an education for democratic participation. near would say reading and writing is enough, he responded. Personally, I would go a few steps further to say that students should learn to come into intercourse with others on a public stage. Voluntary national standards for civic education argue a combination of making sure students know the autobiography and shape of the structure of government, and how to influence public deliberation and policy, he said. Others suggest experience-oriented programs, often called service learning. My model has been the Socratic dialogue, where the teacher is a loss leader and p... ...ploded among white, middle-class, religious families who want more control over the values their children are exposed to or who fear for their childrens safety, Reich said. Im convinced that further privatization is inevitable, he added. Supporters shake off framed the argument for it as a civil rights issue or a matter of companionable justice. he said. People say hot seat Clinton sent his daughter to private school. If we are serious about social justice, we should give all parents the same choice that wealthy parents have. How would he budge the situation? Reich was asked. I can imagine a variety of institutional arrangements unless where private schools are still subject to state oversight, he said. Perhaps public dollars could flow to them if the curriculum met the states interests. A democracy has needs, but that doesnt mean public schools have to meet them.