Refection8

What is the purpose of school? Is the question many parents, teachers, and students are asking. Today some would believe that school is a place of social events but the main purpose is education. School is an institution of learning and a place of hope for a better economy. The economy is based on an educated workforce. “A nation at risk” was a report in 1983, from the National Commission on Excellence in Education that basically gave Americans the sad reality of our country. The report talked about the declining test scores, the weak performance of United States students compared with students in other industrialized nations. It emphasized the fear of the United States losing its ground economically to other countries and the high number of functionally illiterate Americans. Educational reform became the national spotlight which put an extreme pressure on the school system. The reform produced three waves of education that impacted our society. The first wave, which was the strongest, was the increased testing for both teachers and students. Teachers now have to go through more rigorous standards before entering the teaching profession. Most states increased course requirements for graduation and required more testing which is why we have the FCAT today. This wave purpose was to set higher standards for both teachers and students. The second wave of reform was the establishment of developing a national policy for high schools. In 1892, the National Education Association created the Committee of Ten. This committee included professors and college presidents who wanted to change the high school curriculum so that the transition into college would be easier. At that time many students were not going to college so they reformed the committee and added members like, education professors, high school principals, the U.S. Commissioner of Education, and others whose focus was not only on the transition to college but on preparing students for a adult role in society. At that time, students were living in an industrial democracy so the committee wanted to prepare them for the future. The last wave of reform was the Charter School and School Voucher movement. This movement provides parents and teachers alternatives to the existing public school establishment. Charter schools, also called the “school choice movement” started in the early 1990s in Minnesota and since then have launch all over the United States. According to our textbook, a charter school has legal permission from a local or state board to operate a school, usually for a fixed period of time with the right to renew. If the plan is accepted the state would provide you, the owner of the school, with a certain amount of money for each student enrolled. Charter schools are exempt from most state and local regulations and swap these regulations for the freedom and the promise that they will be effective and their students will succeed. Because a charter school can be shut down if it doesn’t meet expectations, the curriculum is very strict. The first publicly financed voucher program was in 1990 in Milwaukee. This program provided students with $3,000 to attended nonsectarian private schools and then in 1995 it was amended to allow students to attend religious schools. Before the amendment in 1995, many private schools were thrilled about the plan but then the addition of the religious schools began uproar. Many students were choosing the religious private school because for one, most private schools were in fact religious schools and secondly most religious schools have a low tuition rate. The voucher was mainly tax payer money so many felt that the voucher was against the First Amendment of the Constitution. In 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman the Supreme Court constructed clear walls of using public funds to support religious education. First the fund must have a secular purpose, second the fund must not primarily advance or prohibit religion and last the fund must not result in excessive government entanglement with religion. I believe that the first wave is so dominant because America believes that they are always in a competition and always want to be the best.