Module Four Part IV: Blog Assignment

    School choice improves public education. I feel this way because deciding the school that people want to go can determine the education that they are going to get. Going to a terrific school that is known for its compelling education can increase a student’s chances for succeeding in school and in life after graduating. That student can find a well-paying job, have enough money to buy a house, and raise a family. Students who go to a school that doesn’t do well academically have a high chance of dropping out and potentially relying on a minimum wage job to cover expenses because the school that they go to is not doing any favors to them. I believe that competition to be accepted into a top tier school improves public education because everyone will feel motivated to be the best that they can so that highly academic schools are willing to accept them. On page 187 it states, “Some reformers believed that one solution was to apply business strategies, such as consumer choice and economic competition. “You want to improve public education?” says John Golle, founder and chairman of Education Alternatives, Inc., a for-profit company.” The way to do it is to compete with them. Allow them the chance to compete with private enterprise, and vice versa. That’s the way you’re going to make public education better.” This evidence shows that competition will strive students to do better in school, which will improve public education. Competition is the reason why businesses expand their products and services. That same strategy could apply to public education. Competition in school choices makes students show up to class on time and complete the required assignments so that they have the option to choose where they want to attend and enhance their career choices. On page 205 it states, “Like other forms of school choice, charters have sparked significant debate. Chester Finn, a founding partner of Edison School, Inc., a private company, says, “Competition is having a salutary effect on schools and school systems as well. We are seeing examples, that are mostly anecdotal so far, of so-called regular schools responding to competition by changing their own offerings, by replenishing their faculty, by getting new textbooks, by getting a new principal or assistant principal. I think it is very important and I think it is probably going to work.” In the passage it states that competition will improve schools when schools get new resources so that their students become more educated. If a school does well in terms of academics then students will be more likely to choose to go to that public institution and public education will improve students since they will excel in all of their classes so that they have the choice to attend a school that has valuable resources. Economic competition pushes schools to provide the best outcome for their students which improves public education.

    Charter schools are another form of school choice. They targeted students who succeed in environmental science, learning and manners, and performing arts. Charter schools give students in public schools the motivation that they need to do well in their classes. On page 205 it states, “As schools that must be chosen, rather than assigned, charters compete for students with targeted programs in subjects such as environmental science, learning and manners, and performing arts. Supporters hope that regular schools will be motivated by these schools - and by the potential loss of students - to reform. This evidence from the passage shows that charter schools are teaching people how to be better students to show them that they need to do better in regular schools so that they can have a better education and expand their career options.