Parents Shouldn’t Drop Out Of Schools

Public schools face abundant criticism but nevertheless are the place where most American children get their education. Should the public improve them, or abandon them?

A growing number of Americans, particularly social conservatives, seem inclined to do the latter. They feel that parents who want academic excellence, classroom discipline and respect for western values can make no headway against the education establishment’s regulations, bureaucracies, political correctness and powerful unions.

In Washington and elsewhere around the country, the critics are proposing vouchers. These would provide a state tuition subsidy for kids who switch from public to private schools. (However, subsidies may not be available for the religious-affiliated schools many voucher advocates prefer.)

Vouchers would drain precious resources from the public schools - students, funding and the most conscientious parents.

Put aside the educational horror stories from Chicago, New York, L.A. and Washington, D.C., and ask yourself: Are the public schools in your community so hopeless that parents can only abandon them?

We doubt it. Consider, for example, a recent development in Spokane School District 81.

With firm support from administrators and the teacher union, the school board has declared itself willing to consider “variances” from rules and union contracts if doing so would improve education. School by school, parents and teachers have a green light to invent and propose changes that would improve service to their attendance area. There are conditions, all reasonable: academic and equity standards will not be lowered, the reform proposal must emerge from a democratic process reflecting broad parental support, and it must be doable within current budget.

The first variances won approval last week. A middle school will begin its school day one hour earlier. An elementary school will use greater flexibility in the assignment of teacher aides.

At other Spokane school buildings there is talk of adding foreign language instruction at earlier grades, extending optional instruction into summer months and introducing multidisciplinary, longer classes in high school.

The possibilities for reform are limited only by the ingenuity and commitment of those who work and volunteer in the schools.

This can lead to renewal in more ways than one. Some of the schools’ deepest problems are not in the classroom at all - they’re in family rooms and kitchens, where a revival of parental involvement in children and schools can work wonders.

Why drop out, parents, when you could set an example for your kids and neighbors and enroll in a push for better public schools?

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board