Subscribe to our Blog
Public Education - A Right or a Privilege?
Nobody seems to be paying much attention to the trend in public schools towards worse and worse student behaviour in class. We have blogged on it a few times - for example, this posting.
The elephant in the room, rarely discussed, is schools' inability to expel - or even discipline in any meaningful way - misbehaving students. Here's a commentary that tackles the issue head on, blaming "the Left" for ensuring that chronically-disruptive students remain in classrooms, even when they are "plunging classrooms into chaos and preventing dozens of students from learning". The commentator believes that schools should be able to expel badly-behaved students.
Such a philosophy would beg the question of whether attendance in public schools is a right or a privilege. Piranhas - feel free to attack this question!
“Sure, many of the public schools are extremely violent, dangerous places where a large number of students never progress beyond elementary school reading levels, but at least all of the delinquent students’ “rights” are being protected and all the teachers are union members. So the sad truth is that leftists are happy to allow tens of thousands of children to suffer in order to protect the “rights” of a few hundred chronically misbehaving students, and safeguard union privileges.
Leftists’ reluctance to discipline children is also preventing educators from effectively combating bullying. As conservative columnist Thomas Sowell recently pointed out, politicians and educators talk a lot about eliminating bullying and violence in schools, but they don’t wind up doing much about the situation. Part of the problem, as Sowell notes, is that the courts (i.e. liberal judges) have prevented public schools from effectively punishing bullies. In addition, school officials’ fear of “the R word” (racist) has prevented them from disciplining many students.”
As to the question, a right or a privilege? Neither, since children are compelled by law to attend school, and not necessarily a public school. In my neck of the woods, misbehaving students are treated a little differently by the parents, when the schools do not take action on the misbehaving kids and the bullies. The parents phone up the police, and it is fairly effective because most parents have some explaining to do when the police car is sitting in their driveway. Very effective when I resorted to using the police, where 4 girls were verbally bullying my child, during final exams. I even receive a phone call from one of the parents, totally offended that I would resort to such actions for name calling. More embarrassed by the police car in their driveway, and the behaviour of their own child. As for the more serious situations of assaults that take place at the school, where the school does not bring in the police to lay criminal charges, the parents have also found the police to be quite helpful, to push the school to do the right thing, suspend the student. And in some cases charges are laid, without the cooperation of the school. A more recent case, a 14 year old boy is now in custody, for behaviour that was tolerated by the school for many years. It was the parents that decided to get the police involved to push for charges.
I believe that children have the right to a safe environment free of bullying and disruptive behaviour by other children. Schools should be force to take immediate action, to suspend or to provide alternative education in the home setting, until the student’s behaviour improves, or the police will be brought in to arrange a court date. As the article has stated, all the rights are afforded to the disruptive student or the bully, but no rights are afforded to the other students who become their victims. Immediate consequences does a wonderful job in my books, to curb bad behaviour even in the home setting.