Charter and private schools are not dangerous places
In response to Jenni Casale’s recent letter to the editor regarding school funding.
Despite what she claims, charter schools are public schools and not, as she writes, dangerous. They are governed by both federal and state laws so they do have oversight and accountability.
She suggested students from charter and private schools are often more advanced because they usually do not have issues in discipline and parent involvement. So let’s do one quick fix and another long-term goal.
“Not behaving, not achieving” (often one leads to the other) brings up discipline in the classroom. I bet even Ms. Casale would agree with me that teacher authority in the classroom has evaporated with little/no help from either administrators or parents. That allows the unruly to distract and disrupt other students who are there to learn. Reinstate discipline back into the classroom. Zero tolerance with administrative support for those who can’t behave. Remove the weeds and let the plants grow.
“Parent involvement”? This is a much harder fix. Modern day culture, especially among minorities, fosters fatherless/one parent households. Statistics illustrate the fact the children from these households are more likely to achieve less and more prone to criminal behavior. I cringe when I hear “baby mommy, baby daddy” used indifferently. The single parent has a huge weight on their shoulders just in keeping employed and financially supporting the children. School work often is at a lower priority in these cases. This is also often a cyclical process, one single parent producing another single parent. One workable fix might be having political activists, sports stars, religious leaders, music artists and the parents of the potential parent preaching and setting an example for family unity instead of turning a blind eye.
Parenting is a tremendous responsibility but in society’s effort to help single parent families we could have actually assumed that responsibility ourselves. Who would have thought 30 years ago that it was the school’s duty to feed and provide day care? Raising a child should be the toughest job you’ll ever love so help the child and yourself. Don’t put yourself in a position to do it alone.
Mark Mullen
Bradenton
