While our drawls and small towns are a quaint reminder of our heritage, the refusal of state policymakers to implement the educational reforms necessary to make our schools more successful and our children more prepared for life after their formal education are definite black marks on our state’s reputation.
Despite below average standardized test scores,
troubling graduation rates, and other indications of weak performance, leaders
in Alabama have been obviously reluctant to join the majority of the country.
Why is the status quo of low achievement, failing schools, and political games
accepted by us year after year?
Choice in public education is a good thing; it helps
those of us with learning styles that differ from our peers find an educational
niche and it gives parents with children limited to failing schools a viable
alternative. When deciding on a church family you have many options: Methodist,
Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. And shopping centers offer a wide variety of
clothing and eating options, depending on your budget and taste. It is, as they
say, a free country.
Exhibit A: yours truly.
Homeschooled until the age of nine, I was the lucky
recipient of one-on-one instruction in not only reading, math, history, and
science, but also in the art of raising chickens, the process of growing,
harvesting, threshing, grinding and baking wheat into bread. When a subject caught
my attention I wasn’t limited to a fifty minute class about it, I was allowed
to obsess over it and memorize every detail. The whole world was my classroom,
and everyone I met was my teacher.
Following a move to a more rural part of the state
that didn’t offer the same variety of “umbrella organizations” for
homeschooling families, I began attending a relatively small public school. The
close-knit town and school wide focus on patriotism and character made my five
years in a more traditional public school setting pleasant and interesting, but
its dearth of higher-level challenges and opportunities in high school led me
to consider a daring option: moving away from home at the age of fifteen to
attend one of Alabama’s two public boarding schools.
I settled on the Alabama School of Math and Science
(ASMS) in Mobile to finish the last three years of my secondary education, and
it was an incredible experience. Not only was I able to enter college as a
sophomore due to the variety of Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors classes I
took, I became more independent, more confident, and infinitely more prepared
for my post-secondary career than I would have been otherwise.
ASMS is an amazing opportunity for the 250 students
who are able to attend each year, but what about those who seek advanced
educational opportunities and don’t quite make the cut, or don’t want to move
upwards of six hours away from home at such a young age?
What about those students who are mired in a failing
school or school district and whose families don’t have the resources to
provide tuition to one of Alabama’s excellent private elementary, middle, or
high schools?
Currently, these students are told “Too bad, you’re
stuck. Sorry.” Many are left without an opportunity to a quality education.
I, a first-hand beneficiary of school choice,
believe it is time for Alabama to finally change that. And we can.
Many of Alabama’s neighbors in the southeast have
embraced charter schools, voucher programs, and tax credit scholarship
programs, but our policymakers have refused to consider reforms. Alabama
continues to be near the very bottom in many measures of academic success.
The next session of the Alabama Legislature begins
February 5th. This means the next three months of the session will provide the
only chance this year for Alabama to seize a needed opportunity for our next
generation of citizens.
Public school choice can throw wide the doors of
opportunity for thousands of Alabama’s children who do not learn best by
sitting in a classroom for seven hours a day, for the students who crave a
challenge, and for the parents of kids stuck in failing schools who desperately
want to provide a better life for their daughters and sons.
Contact your State Senators and House members, and
let them know that you are tired of these opportunities being denied to our
students. Parents and youth in Alabama need education options and they need
them now.
About the author: Elizabeth Robinson is a Policy
Analyst and Grant Coordinator for the Alabama Policy Institute, a non-partisan,
non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of
free markets, limited government and strong families, which are indispensable
to a prosperous society.
This article was published by the Alabama Policy Institute.
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