The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based public policy think tank, has released a policy brief that concludes that education opportunities for school-aged military children in California would be improved by introducing something called GI Junior Scholarships. Essentially, these scholarships are school vouchers to allow parents to choose their children’s school. Military children attend an average of six to nine different school systems throughout their elementary and high school years. Overall, school districts surrounding military bases throughout California have a slightly lower Academic Performance Index (API) than the statewide average. No more than half the students in public schools surrounding California’s 26 military bases score at the “proficient” level in English language and math on the California Standards Test. Only14 percent of high school students in those schools on average score college-ready in English on the Early Assessment Program and 9 percent score college-ready in math.
“It’s entirely reasonable that military parents, who have little to no control over where they will be stationed should command more choice over the education of their children,” one of the authors of the study says. “Expanding private education options for students from military families by allowing students to attend private schools using public funds would help ensure they have access to high-quality schools regardless of where their parents are stationed.”
I am a strong supporter of increasing opportunities for military children to do well in school, but I believe a larger, critical point is being overlooked here. If these schools are not good enough for military children, why are they good enough for others? They clearly aren’t serving anyone very well, and resources could be better put into improving these schools than finding ways to abandon them and go elsewhere.
Here’s a link to an article about this subject:
No comments:
Post a Comment