School critiques need balance

School critiques need balance

I attended a meeting May 7 at Boardman High School that was purportedly held to discuss funding inequities between public and charter schools in the state of Ohio.

I attended expecting an intelligent and spirted discussion about the financial mechanisms used to fund public eduction in Ohio. What was presented was a Democratic Party and Ohio Education Association pep rally. The all star panel, which included former Gov. Ted Strickland, Ron Gerberry, Joe Schiavone and a number of other liberal leaders from the educational profession spent three hours blasting charter schools and the school voucher system.

I agree with them that charter schools are a drain on public school finances and that most are underperforming. Legislation should be quickly enacted that requires charter schools or private schools accepting vouchers to achieve the same level of performance via standardized testing as their public school counterparts. What was disturbing was the insistence by all on the panel and most in attendance that the only educational model that is acceptable is one that uses public funds exclusively at public schools.

Why are public educators so afraid of competition? If the testing metric used to judge success or failure is the same for all participants, then I fail to see how competition does not inevitably result in a long term educational gain — the weak and inefficient are eliminated while the strong and innovative flourish. One of the keynote speakers, Kern Alexander, bemoaned the fact that some of the religious schools receiving vouchers might choose not to teach evolution as part of their science curriculum. I find it amusing that such a staunch proponent of Darwin’s theory refuses to let said theory be practiced within his profession.

In the future, I hope the organizers will choose to present a more balanced approach to fixing what really ails public education — an overreliance on property taxes as the main source of revenue.

Rich Ferenchak, North Lima