Playing With Fire - School Choice Within Public Education

When Public school boards allow parents to choose a school to isolate them from the mainstream  they diminish the unifying power of our public school system. Discuss how we can allow for choice within a public system, but still educate all in unity, not separation. 

Here is the link to a previous post I reference in the podcast regarding the gensis of my views on this issue. Is Anyone Sending Their Kids to The Nice School Down the Street?

I find it ironic that public school boarads would go down the road of school choice when it is the catchphrase of those who oppose the universality of publicly funded education. I do explore ways in which choice can be done within a mainstream system, but when you allow certain groups to isolate themselves in their education - we all suffer.

In fact, if you support public funded separate schools you don’t believe in the universal values of public education. You want school choice, but you don’t want to pay for it or put in the work to make to the public system better.

If you want your kids to go to school with all of society - public schools are slowly no longer serving that need. Publicly funded speciality schools and programs are popping up everywhere and are breaking the system into fragments.

When public money dries up for these programs, and it will. The case for public education will be lost since the benefit of gaining perspective from being educated with children of all backgrounds will be gone. Chartered schools will spring up with cash strapped governments more than happy to reduce their education funding.

The loss of a strong public education system that has been a cornerstone of a progressive Ontario would be a shame. The irony is that it is being brought about by people wanting exclusivity in their public education system, but who are unable to afford the private option. This same demographic will be hurt the most - when these public programs get cut and parents come crawling back to a universal public system that many stakeholders have since abandoned.

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