Welcome Back to Public (Private) School

I went to Catholic school from K-12, so when Miss Thing started at our local public school last year, there were a number of things that didn’t really phase me that seem to give folks a lot of consternation.

First, I don’t really worry about what teacher she is going to get.  There was only ever one class at each grade for me from K-8, so there was no choice.  Maybe I just haven’t been at this school long enough to have opinions about the teachers, but in life, we all have to work with people we like and people we don’t.  Learning to navigate personalities is a part of learning how to be in the world.

Second, was the amount of money we ended up shelling out to supplement the school staffing and curriculum.  This was largely to two entities, our local education foundation and the PTA.  My parents paid a lot of money in tuition for my private education, and then always were required to commit another 40 hours per year in volunteer time. Shelling out close to $1000 to make the education work didn’t really strike me as odd, at first.

Like any parent with the time and resources to do so, I have done my best to be engaged in Miss Thing’s classroom and her school.  I began attending PTA meetings last September to better understand the work this organization does on behalf of our school.  I learned that the PTA and our local educational foundation fund science, technology, music, art, and library time.  The public school my daughter attends is highly functional, but what makes it work is the sheer volume of resources the PTA and the local education foundation are able to pour into these programs and salaries.  Programs that are fundamental to basic education and future entry into the rapidly shifting job market.

We do not acknowledge that California schools that succeed do so because of this kind of private investment.   And what can be incredibly frustrating about the PTA is constantly hearing how glad people are to live in the district and how thrilled teachers are to have such substantial parental involvement, as if this involvement is purely a matter of choice.  But this level of investment is not available to all parents and students, not out of a lack of desire or care, but due to socioeconomic factors that result in a lack of access to the time and capital that must be invested to make a modern public school function in this political and economic climate. 

Our school is a public/private partnership.  Without the substantial private funding that supplements the budget, our school would not work.  While I applaud my school district and parents for making our school work, it is shortsighted to imagine that our society will succeed unless all our children have the same access to high quality public education.  Our society cannot thrive while large populations of students and communities are cast off.  

Education cannot be a policy afterthought, nor should it be allowed to fall into disrepair in order to make it easier to privatize schools.  If our policy makers are serious about securing our economic future, full & free public education should be available to every community.  Not just those who can afford it.