I was interested to attend the Headliner Luncheon for Jeanne Allen the other day. Ms. Allen is the head of the Center for Educational Reform and an advocate for charter schools. Since then I?ve been considering what she said and wondering why she didn?t see the inconsistency between the start and the finish of her statements.
A lot of what she said I cheerfully subscribe to, and wish her much progress in her mission, but other comments didn?t mesh. They simply underscored the difference between publicly funded institutional solutions — of which charters are an improved version of the traditional public schools — and those which are privately funded and controlled.
Throughout the presentation, she confirmed that the root of charters’ success lies in their freedom to innovate, coupled with parental choice and involvement. She saw a need to emphasize the role of the parents, saying, “We have to tell parents they have a right to make decisions about their children,” and calling for an educational culture where “parents are respected and trusted as people who know what to do with their children.”
On the other hand, this was limited by her opening remarks that defined only ?some degree of parental choice? as a characteristic of the successful school, and that late in the list. Why is it necessary to stop short of the obvious ? that parents, and through them the students, are the customers of this endeavor, and those parents hold the ultimate authority?
The Supreme Court has acknowledged this repeatedly. They chided a state legislature for attempting “materially to interfere ? with the power of parents to control the education of their own” (Mayer, 1923). The Court said that it is “the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children” and that this is a “right, coupled with high duty” (Pierce, 1925) for them to exercise. In the Yoder decision (1972), the Court ruled it is “the fundamental interest of parents, as contrasted with that of the state[emphasis added]”, and wrote, ?This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate …?.
To run an institution requires a certain level of structure and delegation of authority within ? granted. Still, why do the keepers of those institutions persist in language that grudgingly grants to parents bits and pieces of their natural role — rather than frankly admitting that Mom and Dad, not the school, have the final say?
Once that’s on the table, then we can talk about partnership and collaboration between school and home, but not while the relationship remains inverted.
