The Wichita Eagle’s editorial board takes aim at grants recently distributed to charter school start-ups. It would truly be unfortunate if the idea of charter schools got distracted by shady business practices or, more likely, the old conservative-versus-moderate debate. There’s no particular ideology that is inherent to charter schools. The first state to use them was Minnesota, a famously “blue” state, and Arizona, a “red” one by most accounts, makes heavy use of them. There’s plenty of room in charter schools for a wide range of experimentation.
October 10, 2006
No One-Size-Fits-All Education
At the risk of being identified too closely with everything that Steve Abrams espouses, this profile from the Ark City Traveler suggests that the outgoing chairman of the SBOE is asking some useful questions about how we deliver education, and the need for making sure that students are ready for work.
Abrams points out that there are shortages for some skilled jobs that don’t require a college education. A university degree is useful for many students, but from the point of view of social as well as personal resources, there would be a lot of waste if everyone went from high school into college.
Vocationally-oriented education is sometimes slammed as forcing students into narrowly training for jobs that won’t be here in another 20 years. It’s true that a narrow jobs-training program is unwise. But the larger point holds: not every high school student should be expected to be on a college prep track.
Abrams also makes a good point when he says that distance learning has a role to play. With the growth of Internet usage, knowledge is not nearly as localized as it used to be.
