Parent Choice: The Path to Better Education
Posted by Kathleen Bowers | Posted in Advocacy, Children's Need, Hotline, Interests and Abilities Map, National news, Parent Experiences, Resources, Viewpoints | Posted on 06-08-2010
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Parent Driven Schools has long advocated for parents’ choice in the education of their children. After all, who is most motivated to make our educational systems the best they can possibly be? It’s not the educators, the administrators, or the politicians. It’s the parents!
Parents vote with their feet. They move their families to cities and neighborhoods where the schools are known to be good. They seek out charter schools that are a better for their child than the neighborhood schools. They home-school, too, in ever-increasing numbers.
Here at Parent Driven Schools, we are strong supporters of parent choice in the education of their children. We recognize that there’s no one right answer for all children, and we know from experience that parents are in the best position to make educational decisions. That’s why we want every family to be informed and empowered to make the best possible decisions. Following are a few tools and web sites that can help:
- Greatschools.org publishes annual School Chooser guides and distributes them at no cost to thousands of parents so they can make more informed choices about where to send their children to school.
- The US Department of Education provides a webcast called New Tools for Parents: Getting Informed & Getting Involved. This webcast highlights the benefits of The No Child Left Behind Act, which provides parents with access to a greater range of educational options, including free tutoring programs, charter schools, and scholarships for low-income students. Another US Department of Education webcast, Charter Schools and School Choice, provides a more in-depth look at charter schools. The US Department of Education publicly states that “charter schools, in particular, have become increasingly appealing to parents, and for good reason—as laboratories for new educational strategies, these flexible schools improve education for everyone in the system and offer innovative places for children to achieve at their highest possible levels.”
- The homeschooling movement, while strong, is somewhat more diverse. Some resources for parents considering homeschooling include the Homeschooling section of About.com, Homeschool.com, and Classical Christian Homeschooling.
- Independent study charter schools are yet another option, offering benefits of both charter schools and homeschooling. For examples, see Innovative Education Management (IEM) Charter Schools, Sky Mountain Charter School and Ocean Grove Charter School . IEM has been successfully developing and operating California charter schools for many years.
- Call our free HelpLine anytime during business hours. Our support specialists provide free information, ideas and resources for parents making educational decisions or experiencing difficulty working with their child’s school. The HelpLine phone number is (800) 893-6199.