Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Want to Keep Students From Fleeing Government Schools? How About Less PR and Actually Fixing Their Problems!

The Palm Beach [FL] Post has an article in today's paper about how the county school district is planning a series of public service announcements touting its schools. This is the result of an unanticipated enrollment drop of more than 3200 students this past school year.

The ads show that public schools are "meeting the needs of our children," said Judith Garcia, manager of The Education Network (a local cable channel that is producing the ads). She said they "help people understand that the school district can be more tailored to what their specific interests and talents are."

This statement appears to be contradicted by one of the main reasons the article cites for the drop in enrollment: the exploding popularity of "
other education options - including home schooling, private schools and charter schools."

If the Palm Beach County district schools were actually meeting the needs of the children living there, parents wouldn't be making the big financial sacrifice to privately or home school them.

Here's an idea: how about spending a little less time and effort doing PR and a little more on actually fixing the problems that are causing families to flee traditional public schools??????

1 comment:

Political Season said...

I was glad to read your post. I serve on a development committee for a Charter School, which is located in the midst of major redevelopment activity. When we relocated people asked us "why aren't you considering downtown" and my answer was simple - we have 3 school age children. I used to question the logic of charter schools and siphoning resources, especially since I have an aunt who is a tremendous public school principal. The reality, however, is that no parent who has options wants to play musical chairs with their children (might get a good teacher, might get a character curriculum, might have a gifted program.) Your insight is timely and succinct. Tremendous post.