Charter school controversy

Humanist, Nov-Dec, 2005 by Elke M. Mikaelian

Jennifer Hancock's statement that education is a human right ("Why Humanists Should Embrace Charter Schools" September/October 2005) is wrong. Instead, there is an obligation on the part of parents to educate their children, to make them fit to function on their own by the time they reach adulthood. For practical reasons, parents have transferred that job to schools and society has settled on the method of using property taxes to cover the cost.

In view of the generally poor results achieved by large numbers of public schools, however, charter schools are a reasonable solution. And even if charter schools in some neighborhoods don't produce impressive results, they must be doing better than public schools in the same neighborhoods or parents wouldn't keep sending their children there.

We need to let go of the notion that schools can be the great levelers of the playing field for all members of our society. Like it or not, schools will always be a mirror image of their neighborhoods. Parents will always choose to live in the best neighborhoods that they can afford and thus send their children to the best schools that they can afford, in or away from the town in which they live. It is a law of nature that can't be affected by any law or regulation of man in a free society.

Elke M. Mikaelian

Roswell, New Mexico