If you listen to the mainstream media or public school advocacy groups, you might believe that sinister, for-profit meanies are driving the demand for school choice by depicting district schools as defective or immoral institutions.
But districts do a fine job of alienating families without any help from school choice proponents, particularly when districts implement policies and practices designed to appeal to special interest groups.
In Cumberland County, parents are objecting to the use of a Planned Parenthood sex education program called “Get Real.” Obviously, the values advanced by Planned Parenthood are not universally shared, so it was foolish for school officials to believe that families would be amenable to a sex education program based on those values.
The discontinuation of the program may not be enough to convince some parents that the Cumberland County Schools is not suitable for their children. Unfortunately, many of these parents have limited options, given that there has been meager charter school growth in the Sandhills.