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Should parents have the right to chose the school their child goes to?

Mika

もえじゃないも
    • 1,036
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    • Seen Feb 11, 2013
    [MIKA NOTE: I DID NOT SEE THIS ANYWHERE I WENT BACK FOUR PAGES ;^; Mr Moderator please don't bite me if I'm tl;dring on something that's already been commented extensively on.]

    In the US, in most places, you're locked into a set school district. You go to an Elementary - Middle - Highschool that was predetermined by your zip code. Some districts, mine included, allow for Open Enrollment meaning parents can petition for their child to attend a different school in the district. This is not the case for some families in the US, where Open Enrollment is banned. Because of this, there is, in some areas, a very sharp difference between schools because of the people locked into these zip codes. Some parents, who are unable to get into Charter schools or afford private schools, have turned to falsifying residency in the 'right' zipcode so their child can attend the better school.

    Do you think that it is acceptable for a parent/parents to falsify residency to get their child into a better school district? The differences can be absolutely staggering. In my area alone, the highschool I attended had a much higher percentage of high ranking students who graduated with honors and went onto college than the one I was slotted for. They had literally 3x the number of AP classes and the music program alone left every single other program in the district far behind it. They also did not at the time i attended and still do not have a full time armed police officer on staff.

    In earlier years, the difference between one elementary school and another can determine whether or not you learn how to read in an effective timely matter. Should a parent have the right then to decide where their child goes to school? Teachers Unions and school districts in the US are openly verbal about their opposition to open enrollment. They don't believe it's fair to teachers in the 'bad' schools and they believe parents should either 'deal' with the school they're given or move into a better district. If this isn't financially possible, that's the parent's problem, not theirs.

    What about parents who do live in the good districts? Is it fair to them to have kids open enrolling or sneaking in from out of district? Is it fair that their child gets a larger class size and less attention?

    For non US residents, did you parents have the freedom to chose where you went to school? If a school was sub par or if you felt unsafe, would you have been able to easily switch schools? [In some US districts, even in the case of abuse by peers, it is nearly impossible to switch schools] Would your parents have tolerated this lack of control?

     
    It doesn't take much to see that parents want to enrol their children into a school where they're most likely to get a good and sophisticated education. I know my parents did exactly that as I was growing up. My father would tell me time and time again...

    "Christina, we wanted you to get into a good school because as our child, you deserved that much and more. Education will be a security belt for you in the future, so please make the most of this opportunity and do your best in the years ahead." That is what he said to me.

    Because this was my parents' ambition, they were incredibly picky with the schools they listed as possible places for me to go. I would sit there and watch them a little dumbfounded and oblivious, even argued with them at some point that it shouldn't matter where I go as long as I do go to school, but...well, it was only during my later years did I realise just how important it is to get into a good school, especially because my friends and other people we all knew had experiences in more mediocre schools that have led to a decline in their intelligence and well-being.
     
    Oh my god, I didn't know we were doing life-stories!

    Thanks for telling my entire life, man. My mom did nothing but control were I go to school, but this year I took a stand and chose where I wanted to go.

    Also I think other kids should think things out before they go choosing or telling their parents that they're wrong, hey you never know maybe they're helping you a lot more than you think. Maybe if they let you do what you wanted to do you might've destroyed yourself.
     
    Signomi said:
    "Christina, we wanted you to get into a good school because as our child, you deserved that much and more. Education will be a security belt for you in the future, so please make the most of this opportunity and do your best in the years ahead." That is what he said to me.
    Click to expand...

    So then, would you find it unfair to deny parents that right to chosing a good school? The US likes to claim all schools are equal, some are more equal than others that parents should go where they are instructed to go. Do you think your parents would have found this line of thinking offensive/outrageous?
     
    Parents should have every right to send their children to any school they want to. Locking a child into certain schools because of their area code is a great amount of stupidity and killing anyone's chances of having a better education. I know if my parents could have afford to send me to a better school, they would have but that won't stop me from making the most out of going to tafe and then university after a few years of studying.
     
    It seems the way schools work in America are different than here. Over here, some schools only let children in who live in the area, but generally you could choose almost any school in the state to go to if you really wanted to/had to. Ultimately, it should be the right of the school to decide which students are allowed in. Then it should be the child's choice (providing they have a good reason for their preference of school), and finally the parents.
     
    I think Parents should have a say in what school their children go to. I had no choice for my first school, as I was only what 5 so I didn't really know haha. In Australia we are not forced to go to a certain area because of our location. But I chose my current school, and my parents let me. I think parents should have a say, but so should the kid who is actually GOING there.
     
    Here in Germany, the system is the following:
    First, there are 4 years of Grundschule (elementary school). After that, the whole thing splits up into three branches: Hauptschule (9 years, lowest graduation), Realschule (10 years)and Gymnasium (13 years (well it used to be 13, but got lowered to 12, much to the dismay of pretty much everyone), highest graduation). I'm not even going to try to translate them. There used to be two more years (called Orientierungsstufe) after the elementary school serving the purpose of determining which school a child would be best suited for, but for some reason it got abolished.
    So, after the Orientierungsstufe (now probably right after elementary school... I have no idea tbh), you will be recommended which school branch to go to. While it is possible for parents to veto that and send their children to a higher or lower (yes, I've in fact seen that happen to a former classmate back then), the recommendations are usually pretty accurate. As for the location of the school, you can go anywhere you want, but most people just go to the closest one, just because it's easier.
    In the end, the system leads to people having attended the Hauptschule being utterly screwed, people having attended the Realschule having the choice of switching over to a Gymnasium-like school form to get a better graduation (Fachabitur, a variation of the Gymnasium's Abitur) or being screwed as well.
    Aaaand once again, my own text doesn't even make sense to myself.
     
    Oh wow, I had no idea the American system was like this. I think it's ridiculous how they choose the school for people, to be honest. I assume the reasoning behind it is so that they don't have some schools (the bad ones) near empty whilst others (good schools) are full to the brim.

    The best solution would be to allow people to choose which school to go to, and then the ones that are really unpopular because of their bad reputation should be checked up on and then improved so that the school is brought up to a higher standard. But of course, that would never be considered because it's far too much effort for our oh-so-busy governments.

    Mika said:
    They don't believe it's fair to teachers in the 'bad' schools and they believe parents should either 'deal' with the school they're given or move into a better district. If this isn't financially possible, that's the parent's problem, not theirs.
    Click to expand...
    This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard, I don't even...

    Mika said:
    For non US residents, did you parents have the freedom to choose where you went to school? If a school was sub par or if you felt unsafe, would you have been able to easily switch schools?
    Click to expand...
    Somewhat. In primary school (British equivalent to elementary), there was plenty of choice as there were about five primary schools within the area. As we'd only just moved there, my mum didn't know what the reputation of the schools were like so I ended up going to the worst one anyway, lmao. But I could have easily gone to another one.

    When I moved to secondary school (ages 11-16) there wasn't as much freedom because there were only two of them in the area, so there were two secondary schools crammed with five primary schools worth of pupils. One of the secondary schools had a far better reputation than the other, so there was a lot of competition to be granted a place there. I ended up in the worse of the two. After about a year there I hated it and stopped going, so my mum had to appeal for me to be transferred and it took about three months of forms and interviews before they decided they'd give me a place. My grades helped me get in, and I'm sure that if I didn't get good grades they would never have let me in.

    It's ironic really, how they refuse to let people with bad grades into their school, but good grades are rarely achieved if you're in a terrible school. Kind of like how the system makes it so you need to be rich to get rich, you have to be intelligent in order to get more intelligent. I just got lucky.

    Mika said:
    Would your parents have tolerated this lack of control?
    Click to expand...
    My mum was pretty angry at the whole process of getting me to switch schools, so I'm sure she'd have been furious if they didn't allow the switch. But I doubt there would have been anything she could do. That's the world we live in, parents don't even have control over their own child's education.
     
    Of course. If they feel that their child could get a better education elsewhere, then why shouldn't they be allowed to transfer?
     
    Wow...I thought The Simpsons would've exaggerated it more...just, wow.

    Where I come from, my parents chose. Obviously, they sent me to one of the nearest schools. But they chose between the three, and arguably chose the better one. I benefited a lot from that - I doubt I'd be as clever if I'd had a bad primary school.

    I think that parents should be allowed to chose which school their children go to, whether by faking a Zip Code, or otherwise. Although obviously when it comes to secondary/high school, the children are old enough to be allowed to decide for themselves.
     
    I think they should it is there kid.
     
    Devil's advocate here.

    If parents could choose wherever they wanted then that could cause problems. Let's say you have a town with two high schools, a pretty good one and a not so great one. If too many people want to send their kids to the good school you'd overcrowd that school, increase classroom size, and so on. That could bring the quality down. Plus I'm sure that at a certain point the schools would have to stop accepting students for space reasons because they don't have enough classrooms/desks/teachers/etc. If that happened then you'd have to have some way of determining who gets in and who doesn't. Probably that would be some kind of entrance exam. Or maybe not, but that's what I'd assume would have to happen. That would then turn school choice into a competition for the best students so parents would want to put their kids in the best elementary schools, then the best preschools, etc. That's an exaggeration, I know, but I just want to get the point across. So what you could end up with is a situation where the good school gets the better students, gets more funding, and generally gets better while the 'bad' school gets worse and worse. And because the good school can only take so many students everyone who doesn't get into it gets left in a poor school and that's not fair to them because in all likelihood they'll end up worse off than in the system where parents had no choice.

    And if parents can choose what school they want their kids going to should they get to choose which teachers teach their kids? What should be taught in school? I mean, if you've got such concerned parents I would hope they would take an active part in helping their kids learn outside of school anyway. Call me cynical, but my impression of a school-shopping parent is one who wants to shuck all the responsibility to a teacher. Not that they shouldn't be able to, but they shouldn't act so concerned.

    Personally, I don't like it when some schools lack, for instance, a music program while another school in the same town has one. It's not a great system, but the alternatives have problems, too.
     
    Most of the time, kids should have the right to choose which school they go to, but when the kid can't decide, or if the parents are short on finances, they may be the ones to choose.
     
    Yes. Parents should even be allowed to send their kids to school in another neighboring district provided that school has space after admitting students from within its district. Where I went to high school, a student and their parents could select three schools in order of preference. The student would only be placed in the school assigned by their ZIP code if there was no space at any of the other schools they wished to attend.
     
    FreakyLocz14 said:
    Yes. Parents should even be allowed to send their kids to school in another neighboring district provided that school has space after admitting students from within its district. Where I went to high school, a student and their parents could select three schools in order of preference. The student would only be placed in the school assigned by their ZIP code if there was no space at any of the other schools they wished to attend.
    Click to expand...

    I agree. I vaguely remember you mentioning a voucher or something to that effect in the Education thread awhile back. I like the idea, personally.
     
    Live_Wire466 said:


    I agree. I vaguely remember you mentioning a voucher or something to that effect in the Education thread awhile back. I like the idea, personally.
    Click to expand...

    I support vouchers and school choice because it is just plain reality that some schools are better than others. Students should not only the right to an education, but that education should also be of a respectable quality. Also, with budget and program cuts in my state, not every school is offering the same classes and extracurricular activities. Instead of having every school offer these, my district found it more budge friendly to offer certain expensive, but popular, classes and extracurricilars at certain schools and allow students to attend those schools instead of their assigned school so they may enroll in their desired clasees. An example is my high school offered the IB program, while another in the same district was techonology based and loaned laptops to its students, while yet another focused on visual and performing arts.
     
    Scarf said:
    Devil's advocate here.

    If parents could choose wherever they wanted then that could cause problems. Let's say you have a town with two high schools, a pretty good one and a not so great one. If too many people want to send their kids to the good school you'd overcrowd that school, increase classroom size, and so on. That could bring the quality down. Plus I'm sure that at a certain point the schools would have to stop accepting students for space reasons because they don't have enough classrooms/desks/teachers/etc. If that happened then you'd have to have some way of determining who gets in and who doesn't. Probably that would be some kind of entrance exam. Or maybe not, but that's what I'd assume would have to happen. That would then turn school choice into a competition for the best students so parents would want to put their kids in the best elementary schools, then the best preschools, etc. That's an exaggeration, I know, but I just want to get the point across. So what you could end up with is a situation where the good school gets the better students, gets more funding, and generally gets better while the 'bad' school gets worse and worse. And because the good school can only take so many students everyone who doesn't get into it gets left in a poor school and that's not fair to them because in all likelihood they'll end up worse off than in the system where parents had no choice.

    And if parents can choose what school they want their kids going to should they get to choose which teachers teach their kids? What should be taught in school? I mean, if you've got such concerned parents I would hope they would take an active part in helping their kids learn outside of school anyway. Call me cynical, but my impression of a school-shopping parent is one who wants to shuck all the responsibility to a teacher. Not that they shouldn't be able to, but they shouldn't act so concerned.

    Personally, I don't like it when some schools lack, for instance, a music program while another school in the same town has one. It's not a great system, but the alternatives have problems, too.
    Click to expand...

    To play devil's advocate to your devil's advocate:

    A sensible government would surely give more funding to the schools that need more funding - i.e. the worse performing schools - wouldn't they?
     
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