Parents Improve Our Schools

Parenting is a sacred responsibility. As parents, we are charged with nurturing and protecting our children, instilling in them the principles of right and wrong, so that they can become good neighbors and solid, upstanding citizens.

Since most of us can’t be or are not equipped to be full-time, at-home teachers, we turn over the job of educating our children to professional educators from public, private or parochial schools.

It’s a huge responsibility, and, in some cases a huge risk, in terms of course content, and those with whom our children associate.

I happen to be very satisfied with the Coeur d’Alene Public Schools. Teachers are, for the most part, dedicated to the same principles as I am, and impart knowledge in the necessary subjects in a nurturing, safe environment.

My youngest children attended Fernan Elementary, where the core curriculum was even augmented with generous discussions of such important principles as integrity, honesty, and perseverance, characteristic virtues of successful citizens in a productive society.

Not all schools in America are so well run. In crowded urban areas, schools often are little more than daytime holding tanks - hotbeds of drug use (yes, I know we have plenty of drugs here) and danger and where learning is secondary to keeping order. For those reasons my older children, who completed most of their schooling before moving here, attended private schools, where safety, quality teaching and discipline were bought.

Why the difference in the quality of education among public schools in Coeur d’Alene and those in urban areas? Well, it’s not the amount of public money spent per student. Idaho generally spends much less per pupil but the quality is much higher overall. Is it teacher pay? Sadly, no again.

So, what’s the difference? Parental involvement, mostly. Parents of private or parochial schoolers, who pay for school twice, (tuition and taxes) skin in the game. With their money at stake, they become involved in the specifics of what goes on at school and how it affects their kids. Smaller communities like Coeur d’Alene, where parental concern and participation is relatively high and where students don’t get lost in the crowd, enjoy the same benefit.

Proving that point are the results of 15 years of experiments with education vouchers. In large cities like Detroit, Cleveland, and New York, where over-crowding, poverty, student drug use, and street gangs are common, parents were given cash vouchers and the choice to spend them at any school they wanted, public or private.

The results? Competition among public schools for education dollars, resulting in a better education product and higher student performance in all categories. Note that the actual amount of money spent on education didn’t change, only the ability of parents to influence where the vouchers were applied.

It was parental involvement that made the difference. Parents who perceived increased influence on their chosen schools created competition by insisting that their money be invested wisely and insisting that their children improve their own performance. Vouchers are not for every school system (including Coeur d’Alene’s), but clearly they work for crowed areas by jumpstarting parental concern for improved education.

Parents who participate in their children’s education, through financial or other means, support education in ways they perhaps might not anticipate. Whatever the degree of participation, their children and ultimately the system as a whole, are the beneficiaries.