North Carolina voters decided to play with fire last year and elect a one-party state government (assuming, of course, that there has been much of a difference between Republicrats lately).
I approach the word “bipartisan” with skepticism. After all, Republicans and Democrats have both, for decades, run up our nation’s debt and violate our civil liberties through a process of “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
One issue with the potential to gain bipartisan support that seems to be emerging in North Carolina is that of charter schools and school choice.
Senate Bill 337, introduced on Thursday, indicates a bigger commitment by the state government to explore and expand charter schools in North Carolina. And this year, the N.C. Office of Charter Schools received 70 applications for schools hoping to be considered with plans to open in August of 2014.
These new schools, where parents and students have the option to shop around and choose which schools fit them best, are certain to play a bigger role in N.C. politics moving forward. Understanding the costs and benefits of charter schools will be important as these schools are opened around the state. In my eyes, this move toward decentralized and diverse educational institutions is, on the whole, a good thing.
For many years, government-run school districts have worked as virtual monopolies in primary and secondary education. Besides moving, most parents don’t have much power over where their child goes. Underperforming schools have cemented inequality and cycles of poverty in this country.
Introducing competition breaks the lock that county school boards and teachers unions have on America’s children and keeps everyone more accountable. With charter schools, parents are less restricted by geography and socioeconomic class when choosing where to send their children to school.
There also needs to be recognition that, competition aside, every child has a different set of needs. Not everyone learns in the same way, and parents are most likely to understand the unique needs of their child. Creating gigantic institutions to pump the minions through for about 12 years creates a uniform experience, yes, but doesn’t give educators as much of an opportunity to create innovative teaching models or creative new methods.
I say let a hundred flowers bloom (except don’t follow up with violence like Mao Zedong did). Preparing children for the 21st century shouldn’t necessarily be done via 20th century techniques.
