Op-ed:
Vouchers Are Not The Answer
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots
Earlier this morning I saw a black educator on FOX complaining that we need more vouchers so inner city "minority" kids (Black kids) can go to what he called "better" schools...translation: schools in white neighborhoods. However, there is a big flaw in his thinking...more times than not...these kids will bring the schools they are transferred to down instead of bringing themselves up because the same problems they had in their previous schools follows them to their new schools.
Before some call me racist (which I most assuredly am not) let me explain and as the daughter of an inner city school teacher...one of the few 'successful' inner city schools...I can speak from facts not from what the media wants you to believe...and the fact is vouchers (often involving busing) is not the answer.
Fact one: it's not the schools or the teachers that are bad...it's the lack of parental involvement in their children's education (and sometimes their lives) and nothing else that is the cause of inner city schools routinely receiving failing grades.
Fact two: A-schools are A-schools no matter their location because of parent involvement...parents who volunteer, parents who make sure their kids homework is done, parents who attend PTA and school board meetings, parents who take part in classroom special activities...parents who stay on top of curriculum...simply parent involvement in every aspect of their children's education.
Fact three: for most inner city parents...and usually these kids come from single-parent households or households with 'multiple daddies' of multiple kids...school is thought of as a free baby sitting service first and a place to learn second if even that.
Fact four: inner city parents must stop whining and start setting a good example for their kids. Read...read together if need be. Set and adhere to a good school day schedule as in bedtime at a reasonable time, limit TV and computer gaming time, and surely limit or eliminate 'hanging' time...idle time when kids get in trouble...when kids do drugs.
Fact 5: know that change doesn't happen overnight but it does happen with consistency, involvement, and love...as in kids are not a free ride to more welfare monies...kids are the future...please don't tie them to events of the long gone past. Kids are a blank slate...they learn what they are taught and that teaching starts in the home.