Instead of complaints, try focusing on results

By Karen Taylor
Published: Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006 9:27 p.m. MDT
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Think again, Paul T. Mero (My View, Oct. 8). Give me a home-based education and I will succeed every time: small class size, selected student population, familiarity with students, education values, customized instruction, parental support and effective behavioral management. While this represents the goal of every public school classroom, it hardly represents the reality.

To use home schooling as an example of quality education without financial investment is a fallacy. It undervalues the real economic contribution of the home educator. To choose to home school students constitutes a major economic cost. The resources of the home educator are of great value if their contributions are compared to what they would be paid in the public sector. Most home school families have sacrificed financially to provide the customized education they wish for their children. Private school families also face a great expense. These parents demonstrate they value education both financially and behaviorally. To have such commitment in public education would produce unimaginable results.

Educators agree that parental involvement is much more valuable than money in a child's academic success. Public education welcomes parental involvement. Evaluate any successful school and you will see parent volunteers on a daily basis. Even behavioral problems are resolved much faster when parents and teachers team up. However, educators are handicapped by parents who are unavailable to help with a child's homework, who fail to check a child's progress until after they are failing, who refuse to acknowledge behavior problems even when it disrupts the education of other students.

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The rationale for public education was that educated individuals made better citizens who were able to contribute in positive ways to the community. This has been and continues to be the philosophy behind education. Perhaps in questioning the civilization of today's children, we would do better to question the impact of letting our children mindlessly watch television programs such as "The Simpsons," play violent video games, cruise the malls unchaperoned with money they have not earned, etc. Years ago, a public service announcement stated the time and asked parents if they knew where their children were. In today's society, neither parent nor child knows where the other is.

As a transplant from the business world to the education world, I was surprised to hear the term "unquenchable thirst for money." Those who pursue a career in education are fueled by a desire to make a difference, not a desire to make a fortune. But even they need to pay the bills each month. As a society, we pay sports heroes millions, build huge houses, buy gas-guzzling SUVs and yet complain about the cost of public education. You get what you pay for.

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