If you'd give power over the schools back to the parents, give parents REAL power to hire and fire teachers, you'd turn the whole educational system right around.
It really wouldn't take much.
It's the parents who turned it over in the first place. Somewhere along the way, they bought the notion that teachers knew more and this was best left to the schools. If you want a real intellectual discussion of this, read David Horowitz. For a "layman's" explanation read John Taylor Gatto's Dumbing Us Down. He was once NYC teacher of the year before completely turning against public education. It's one of the first things I read when deciding to homeschool. Towards the bottom of
this page, he talks about the 7 "lessons" he teaches children.
We got quite a bit of flack from parents and teachers when we pulled our kids out. I volunteered almost all the time...when my kids went to school, I went to school. It's what opened my eyes. The sad thing is, we were the best school district in the state. If all the "good" parents and kids left, what would become of the schools. But I was supposed to sacrifice my children for the collective good? No thanks. Too many parents abrogate their responsibility to the state.
Until that stops, the cycle will continue. It's the first place we learn to leave it to the "experts". I haven't been a part of the homeschooling community for a very long time (I can actually be very militant about it if I don't bite my lip) but for several years I was communications director for a national homeschooling organization. At that time the fastest growing segment of the homeschooling community were inner city families.
We gave up a lot though. I still wouldn't change it. The saddest thing I hear is something like, "Oh, I could never do that, I couldn't stand to be around them that much!" I wanted to spend every second I could with my kids and don't think I'll ever look back and think I wish I would've gotten a job so we could get a bigger house instead of educating our sons with our values.
I do think many parents are starting to see how corrupt public education has become. The generation who are young parents now (my sons' generation) are much more conservative than mine was. It's the only way for them to rebel, they certainly couldn't go any further left! Hopefully it will change with them and history won't repeat itself. There are a lot more options now. Just have to break the backs of the teachers' unions first.
Cindie